GIFT  OF 

s    Hopkins    StYorigf 


A  TOUR  OF  THE  MISSIONS 
©bservations  anb  Conclusions 


A  TOUR    OF   THE 
MISSIONS 

Observations  anb  Conclusions 


BY 
AUGUSTUS  HOPKINS  STRONG,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Litt.D. 

PRESIDENT  EMERITUS  OF  THE  ROCHESTER  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

AUTHOR    OF    "SYSTEMATIC    THEOLOGY,"    "  PHILOSOPHY  AND    RELIGION."    "CHRIST 

IN  CREATION."    "MISCELLANIES,"    "CHAPEL-TALKS,"    "LECTURES  ON  THE 

BOOKS  OF  THE   NEW  TESTAMENT,"   "THE  GREAT  POETS  AND  THEIR 

THEOLOGY,"   "AMERICAN   POETS  AND  THEIR  THEOLOGY" 


PHILADELPHIA 

THE  GRIFFITH  AND  ROWLAND  PRESS 

BOSTON  CHICAGO  ST.  LOUIS  NEW  YORK 

LOS  ANGELES  TORONTO  WINNIPEG 

MCMXYUI- 


Copyright,  1918,  by 
GUY  C.  LAMSON,  SECRETARY 

Published  March,  1918 


A  PERSONAL  FOREWORD 


THE  forty  years  of  my  presidency  and  teaching  in  the 
Rochester  Theological  Seminary  have  been  rewarded 
by  the  knowledge  that  more  than  a  hundred  of  my 
pupils  have  become  missionaries  in  heathen  lands.  For 
many  years  these  former  students  have  been  urging 
me  to  visit  them.  Until  recently  seminary  sessions  and 
literary  work  have  prevented  acceptance  of  their  in- 
vitations. When  I  laid  down  my  official  duties,  two' 
alternatives  presented  themselves:  I  could  sit  down 
and  read  through  the  new  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  or 
I  could  go  round  the  world.  A  friend  suggested  that 
I  might  combine  these  schemes.  The  publishers  pro- 
vide a  felt-lined  trunk  to  hold  the  encyclopaedia:  I 
could  read  it,  and  circumnavigate  the  globe  at  the 
same  time.  This  proposition,  however,  had  an  air 
of  cumbrousness.  I  concluded  to  take  my  wife  as  my 
encyclopaedia  instead  of  the  books,  and  this  seemed 
the  more  rational  since  she  had,  seven  or  eight  years 
before,  made  the  same  tour  of  the  missions  which  I 
had  in  mind.  To  her  therefore  a  large  part  of  the 
information  in  the  following  pages  is  due,  for  in 
all  my  journey  she  was  my  guide,  philosopher,  and 
friend. 


370626 


VI  A    PERSONAL    FOREWORD 

Our  tour  would  not  have  covered  so  much  ground 
nor  have  been  so  crowded  with  incidents  of  interest, 
if  it  had  not  been  for  the  foresight  and  assistance  of 
the  Reverend  Louis  Agassiz  Gould.  He  was  a  stu- 
dent in  our  seminary  forty  years  ago,  and  after  his 
graduation  he  became  a  missionary  to  China.  Though 
his  work  abroad  lasted  only  a  decade,  his  interest  in 
missions  has  never  ceased,  and  he  is  an  authority  with 
regard  to  their  history  and  their  methods.  I  was 
fortunate  in  securing  him  as  my  courier,  secretary,  and 
typewriter,  and  his  companionship  enlivened  our  table 
intercourse  and  our  social  life.  But  he  was  bound 
that  we  should  see  all  that  there  was  to  be  seen. 
Without  my  knowledge  he  wrote  ahead  to  all  the 
missions  which  we  were  to  visit,  and  the  result  was 
almost  as  if  a  delegation  with  brass  band  met  us  at 
every  station.  We  were  sight-seeing  all  day,  and 
traveling  in  sleeping-cars  all  night.  Though  I  had 
notified  the  public  that  I  could  preach  no  more  ser- 
mons and  make  no  more  addresses,  I  was  summoned 
before  nearly  every  church,  school,  and  college  that  we 
visited,  and  fifty  or  sixty  extemporized  talks  were  ex- 
torted from  me,  most  of  them  interpreted  to  the  audi- 
ence by  a  pastor  or  teacher.  My  letters  to  home 
friends  were  often  written  on  the  platforms  of  rail- 
way stations  while  we  were  waiting  for  our  trains, 
and  after  six  months  of  these  exhausting  labors  I 
still  survived. 


A    PERSONAL    FOREWORD  Vll 

These  preliminary  remarks  are  intended  to  pre- 
pare the  reader  for  a  final  statement,  namely,  that  the 
papers  which  follow  were  written  with  no  thought  of 
publication.  They  were  simply  a  record  of  travel, 
set  down  each  week,  for  the  information  of  relatives 
and  friends.  I  have  been  urged  to  give  them  a  wider 
circulation  by  putting  them  into  print  In  doing  this 
I  have  added  some  reflections  which,  for  substance, 
were  also  written  at  intervals  on  my  journey,  and 
these,  with  sundry  emendations  and  omissions,  I  have 
called  my  "  Conclusions."  I  submit  both  "  Observa- 
tions "  and  "  Conclusions  ''  to  the  judgment  of  my 
readers,  in  hope  that  my  "  Tour  of  the  Missions  " 
may  lead  other  and  more  competent  observers  to  ap- 
preciate the  wonderful  attractions  and  the  immeasura- 
ble needs  of  Oriental  lands. 

I  cannot  close  this  personal  foreword  without  ex- 
pressing to  my  former  students  and  the  many  friends 
who  so  hospitably  entertained  us  on  our  journey,  my 
undying  sense  of  their  great  kindness,  and  my  hope 
that  between  the  lines  of  my  descriptions  of  what  I 
saw  they  will  discover  my  earnest  desire  to  serve  the 
cause  of  Christ  and  his  truth,  even  though  my  im- 
pressions may  at  times  result  from  my  own  short- 
sightedness and  ignorance.  Only  what  I  have  can 
I  give. 

AUGUSTUS  H.  STRONG. 

ROCHESTER,  August  3,  1917. 


CONTENTS 


I.  A  WEEK  IN  JAPAN i-i  i 

An  ocean  truly  pacific  brings  us  to  a  rainy  Japan. .  3 
The  novel  and  the  picturesque  mingle  in  our  first 

views   of   Yokohama 3 

Visit  to  the  palace  of  a  Japanese  millionaire 4 

A  museum  of  Japanese  art  and  a  unique  entertain- 
ment   4 

Our  host,  an  orthodox  Shinto  and  Buddhist 5 

Conference  of  missionaries  and  their  native  helpers  5 
The  pastor  of  the  Tokyo  church  invites  us  to  his 

home 5 

Reception  at  the  Women's  College  of  Japan,  and  an 

address    there 5 

A  distinguished  company  of  educators  at  dinner. . .  6 
We  give  a  dinner  to  Rochester  men  and  their  wives  7 
A  good  specimen  of  missionary  hilarity  and  fellow- 
ship   7 

The  temple  of  Kamakura  and  its  great  bronze  Buddha  7 

The  temple  of  Hachiman,  the  god  of  war     8 

Supplemented  by  the  temple  of  Kwannon,  the  god- 
dess of  mercy 8 

Japan  enriched  by  manufacture  of  munitions 8 

A  native  Christian  church  and  pastor  at  Kanagawa  9 
Immorality,  the  curse  of  Japan,  shows  its  need  of 

Christianity i  o 

Wonders  of  its  Inland  Sea,  and  great  gifts  of  its 

people 10 

II.  A  WEEK-END  IN  CHINA 13-22 

Hongkong,  wonderful  for  situation  and  for  trade.  .  15 

Swatow,  and  our  arrival  there 15 

Chinese  customs,  and  English  collection  of  them. .  .  16 

The  mission  compound  of  Swatow,  one  of  our  noblest  16 

Dr.  William  Ashmore,  and  his  organizing  work. ...  17 

William  Ashmore,  his  son,  and  his  Bible  translations  17 

ix 


CONTENTS 

A  great  Sunday  service  in  a  native  New  Testament 

church 18 

The  far-reaching  influence  of  this  mission,  manned 

by  many  Rochester  graduates 18 

Our  expedition  to  Chao-yang,  to  see  the  heart  of 

China 1 8 

Triumphal  entry  into  that  city  of  three  hundred 

thousand  inhabitants 19 

Impressed  by  the  vastness  of  its  heathen  population  20 

Mr.  Groesbeck,  the  only  minister  to  its  needs 21 

An  address  to  the  students  of  his  school 21 

A  great  procession  conducts  us  to  our  steamer  at 

Swatow 21 

Shall  we  be  saved  if  we  do  not  give  the  gospel  to 

the    heathen  ? 22 


III.  MANILA,  SINGAPORE,  AND  PENANG 23-32 

A  Yellow  Sea,  and  white  garments 25 

American  enterprise  has  transformed  Manila 25 

Filipinos  not  yet  ready   for   complete   self-govern- 
ment        26 

Visit  to  Admiral  Dewey's  landing-place,  and  also  to 

Fort    McKinley 26 

The  interdenominational   theological  seminary  and 

its   influence 26 

Printed  and  spoken  English  is  superseding  native 

dialects 27 

Singapore,  one  of  the  world's  greatest  ports  of  entry  27 
British  propose  to  hold  it,  in  spite  of  native  unrest  27 
Heterogeneous  population  makes  English  the  only 

language  for  its  schools 28 

Germans  stir  up  a  conspiracy,  but  it  is  nipped  in 

the   bud 28 

British  steamer  to  Penang,  an  old  but  safe  method 

of    conveyance 28 

Kuala  Lumpur,  the  capital  of  the  Malay  Confeder- 
ated   States    29 

Penang  furnishes  us  with  a  great  Chinese  funeral .  .  29 
Its  immense  preparation  and  cost  show  worship  of 

ancestors 29 

Mourners  in  white,  with  bands  of  hired  wailers...      31 
Glorification  of  man,  but  no  confession   of  sin  or 
recognition   of   Christ 32 


CONTENTS  XI 

IV.  THREE  WEEKS  IN  BURMA 33-46 

Burma,  the  land  of  pagodas 35 

The  Shwe  Dagon  of  Rangoon  is  the  greatest  of 

these 35 

Its  immense  extent  and  splendor 35 

The  religion  of  Burma  is  Buddhism,  a  religion  of 

"  merit,"  so  called 36 

Pagoda-building  in  Burma,  coeval  with  cathedral- 
building  in  Europe 36 

The  desolation  in  which  many  pagodas  stand  shows 

God's  judgment  on  Buddhism 36 

Burma  is  consecrated  by  the  work  of  Adoniram 

Judson,  and  his  sufferings 37 

Our  visit  to  Aungbinle,  and  prayer  on  the  site  of 

Judson's  prison 37 

Met  and  entertained  by  missionaries,  our  former 

pupils 37 

Fruitful  Burma  and  its  Buddhism  attracts  famine- 
stricken  India  with  its  Hinduism 38 

Baptist  missions  in  Burma  antedate  and  excel  both 

Romanist  and  Anglican 40 

Far  outstripping  these  in  the  number  and  influence 

of  converts 40 

The  work  of  our  collegiate  and  other  schools  is 

most  encouraging 41 

The  Baptist  College  at  Rangoon  and  the  theological 

seminaries  at  Insein 42 

The  lieutenant  governor  invites  us  to  meet  Lord 

Chelmsford,  viceroy  of  India,  at  afternoon-tea. . .  44 
A  royal  reception,  with  great  conglomerate  of  races  44 
A  demonstration  of  loyalty  to  the  British  Crown. . .  45 
The  dinner  of  our  Rochester  men  at  the  house  of 

Rev.    Mr.    Singiser,    including   representatives   of 

the  Mission  Press  and  the  Baptist  College 45 

Our  final  reception  at  Dr.  D.  W.  A.  Smith's,  on 

Mrs.  Smith's  birthday 46 


V.  MANDALAY  AND  GAUHATI 47-56 

Mandalay,  in  Burma,  the  type  of  Buddhism  ;  Gau- 
hati,  in  Assam,  the  type  of  Hinduism 49 

Visits  to  Maulmain  and  Bassein,  in  Burma,  pre- 
ceded both  these 49 


Xll  CONTENTS 

King  Thebaw's  palace,  at  Mandalay,  a  fortress  built 
wholly  of  wood 50 

The  Hill  of  Mandalay  and  its  pagoda,  four  pagodas 
in  one  50 

We  ascend  eight  hundred  steps  by  taking  extem- 
porized sedan-chairs 51 

Four  successive  platforms  and  four  images  of  Buddha     5 1 

Waxwork  figures  at  the  top  depict  the  vanity  of  life     52 

The  Kuthodaw  in  the  plain  below  seen  from  this 
height 52 

Four  hundred  and  fifty  pagodas  in  one,  each  with 
its  Buddha  and  his  law  engraved  on  stone 52 

The  descent  from  Mandalay  Hill  more  hazardous 
than  the  ascent 53 

Buddhism  compared  with  the  religion  of  Christ...     53 

Gauhati,  the  capital  of  Assam,  has  also  its  temple 
on  a  hill  54 

This  temple  illustrates  Hinduism  as  Mandalay  illus- 
trates Buddhism 54 

Its  immoral  cult  claims  to  have  an  immoral  origin 
in  the  wife  of  the  god  Siva 54 

Its  priestesses  a  source  of  corruption  to  the  British 
college  and  the  whole  country 55 

Vain  attempts  to  interpret  Hindu  myth  and  worship 
symbolically 55 

The  need  of  Christian  teaching  as  to  sin  and  atone- 
ment    56 

VI.  CALCUTTA,  DARJEELING,  AND  BENARES..   57-64 

Calcutta,  the  largest  city  of  India,  so  named  from 
Kali,  goddess-wife  of  Siva,  the  Destroyer 59 

The  temple  of  Kali,  its  priestesses  and  its  worship, 
an  infamous  illustration  of  Hinduism 59 

The  temple  of  the  Jains  represents  Hinduism  some- 
what reformed 60 

The  real  glory  of  Calcutta  is  its  relation  to  modern 
missions 60 

The  work  of  William  Carey,  and  his  college  and 
tomb  at  Serampore 60 

Our  ride  northward  to  Darjeeling,  and  our  view  of 
the  Himalayas 6 1 

A  temple  of  Tibetan  Buddhists  on  our  mount  of 
observation 6 1 

Benares,  the  Mecca  and  Jerusalem  of  the  Hindus. .     62 


CONTENTS  Xlll 

A  hotbed  of  superstition  and  devotion 62 

Its  Golden  Temple,  its  bathing  ghats  and  burning 

ghats  on  the  sacred  Ganges 62 

Our  voyage  of  inspection  in  the  early  morning.  ...  63 
Thousands  bathing  and  drinking  in  the  same  muddy 

stream 63 

Smallpox  and  plague  in  western  lands  traced  back 

to  this  putrid  river 64 

Some  of  the  temples  have  toppled  over,  being  built 

on  sand  instead  of  rock 64 

VII.  LUCKNOW,  AGRA,  AND  DELHI 65-76 

On  Mohammedan  ground,  and  the  scene  of  the 
great  mutiny • 67 

Elements  of  truth  in  the  Moslem  faith  make  mis- 
sions more  difficult 67 

The  defense  of  Lucknow,  one  of  the  most  heroic 
and  thrilling  in  history 67 

The  only  flag  in  the  British  Empire  that  never 
conies  down  at  night 68 

English  missions  and  education  are  guaranties  of 
permanent  British  rule  in  India 69 

The  Isabella  Thoburn  College,  under  Methodist 
control 69 

We  see  the  "  mango  trick  "  under  favorable  circum- 
stances   70 

Agra,  and  the  Taj  Mahal,  a  wonder  of  the  world, 
seen  both  at  sunrise  and  at  sunset 70 

The  Pearl  Mosque  and  the  Jasmine  Tower,  sur- 
rounded and  protected  by  the  Fort 71 

A  flowering  out  of  art,  like  that  of  cathedral- 
building  in  England 72 

Moslem  architects  "  designed  like  Titans,  and  fin- 
ished like  jewelers  " 72 

Delhi,  the  capital  of  India  before  the  reign  of  Akbar     72 

The  British  respect  ancient  tradition  by  transfer- 
ring their  central  government  from  Calcutta  to 
Delhi 73 

The  progress  of  India  under  British  rule  in  the  last 
fifty  years 73 

Indian  unrest  due  in  part  to  English  mistakes  in 
educational  policy 74 

The  Friday  prayer  service  in  the  great  mosque  of 
Delhi 75 


XIV  CONTENTS 


VIII.  JAIPUR,  MT.  ABU,  AND  AHMEDABAD.  .  .   77-87 

The  native  states  of  India  distinguished   from  the 
presidencies  and  the  provinces 79 

Their  self-government  a  reward  of  loyalty  in  the 

mutiny 79 

The  rajas  influenced  by  Western  thought 79 

Jaipur,  the  capital  of  a  native  state,  called  "  The 
Pink    City  " 80 

"  A  rose-red  city,  half  as  old  as  Time  ". 81 

The  maharaja's  town-palace   and   astronomical  ob- 
servatory       8 1 

A  visit  to  Amber,  the  original  metropolis,  and  his 
summer    residence 81 

An  elephant  ride  up  the  hill  while  hanging  over  the 
precipice 82 

The  road   to   Mt.  Abu,  a  wonderful  piece  of  en- 
gineering       84 

We  reach  Dilwarra,  the  greatest  temple  of  the  Jains     84 

Their    reformed    Buddhism    recognizes    Buddha    as 
only  one  of  many  incarnations 85 

The  temple  is  almost  a  miracle  of  art,  and  illus- 
trates the  genius  of  the  East 85 

Ahmedabad,   a  uniquely  prosperous   manufacturing 
and  commercial   city 86 

Factories  needed  by  India  more  than  farms 86 

Missions    need    employment    for    converts,    to    save 
them  from  famine 86 

IX.  BOMBAY,  KEDGAON,  AND  MADRAS 89-99 

Bombay,  second  in  population  in  the  Indian  Empire  91 

Hindus  outnumber  Moslems  and  Parsees 91 

The    Caves   of    Elephanta,    excavated    in   honor   of 

Siva,  god  of  reproduction  as  well  as  of  destruction  91 

His  temple  a  cathedral,  hewn  inside  of  a  mountain  92 
The    lingam,    or    phallus,    gigantic,    carved    out    of 

stone,  in  the  innermost  shrine 93 

Its  worship  a  deification  of  man's  baser  instincts.  .  93 

The  Towers  of  Silence  represent  Parseeism 93 

The  dead  are  exposed  in  them  to  be  devoured  by 

vultures 93 

Construction  of  the  towers  and  details  of  the  process  93 
Compared  with   Christian  burial  in  hope  of  resur- 
rection    94 


CONTEXTS  XV 

Kedgaon,  a  happy  contrast  and  relief 94 

The  center  of  the  work  of  Pundita  Ramabai 94 

The  story  of  her  life  a  romantic  and  thrilling  one. .  94 
The  pitiable  condition  of  child-widows  in  India 

touches  her  heart 95 

In  time  of  famine  she  furnishes  a  refuge  for  two 

thousand  four  hundred  of  them 95 

The  wonders  of  her  plant,  in  schools,  hospital, 

printing  office,  factory,  and  farm 96 

A  great  scholar  of  the  Brahman  caste,  she  is  recog- 
nized as  the  most  influential  woman  in  India. ...  96 
Madras,  the  third  largest  Indian  city,  gives  us  our 

first  tropical  heat 97 

A  center  of  mission  work  for  the  Telugus  and  their 

tribal  conversion 97 

New  Year's  Day  reception  at  Lord  Pentland's,  the 

governor  of  the  Madras  Presidency 98 

Followed  by  a  reception  from  the  Rochester  men, 

my  former  pupils 99 

X.  THE  TELUGU  MISSION 101-113 

Madras,  next  to  Calcutta  and  Bombay  in  thrift  and 
importance 103 

Baptists  have  done  most  for  the  Telugus,  as  Con- 
gregationalists  most  for  the  Tamils 103 

Statistics  of  our  mission  are  most  encouraging....    103 

Self-government,  self-support,  self-propagation,  re- 
quire time 104 

Conference  at  the  house  of  Doctor  Ferguson  brings 
together  men  from  four  separate  fields 104 

The  theological  seminary  at  Ramapatnam,  in  charge 
of  Doctor  Heinrichs 105 

Our  reception  by  teachers  and  students,  and  value 
of  their  work 1 05 

Ongole  and  the  work  of  Doctor  Baker,  the  succes- 
sor of  Doctor  Clough 107 

Laying  the  corner-stone  of  gateway  to  the  new  hos- 
pital    107 

Country  tour  into  the  heart  of  Telugu-land,  and 
open-air  preaching  to  the  natives 107 

Vellumpilly,  where  2,222  were  baptized,  and  Sunset 
Hill,  where  Doctor  Jewett  prayed 109 

Kavali,  and  the  work  of  Mr.  Bawden  for  a  hered- 
itary criminal  class no 


XVI  CONTENTS 

Industrial  education  side  by  side  with  moral  and 
religious no 

Nellore,  our  first  permanent  station  in  South  India  in 

Its  high  school,  under  Rev.  L.  C.  Smith ;  its  hospital, 
and  its  nurses'  training-school 112 

Mr.  Rutherford,  successor  to  Dr.  David  Downie, 
and  Mr.  Smith — all  of  them  Rochester  men 112 


XI.  THE  DRAVIDIAN  TEMPLES 115-124 

The  Dravidians  are  the  aborigines  of  India 117 

The  Aryan  conquerors  appropriated  their  gods,  and 
Siva  married  Kali 117 

Massiveness  and  vastness  characterize  their  tem- 
ples, but  also  Oriental  imagination  and  invention  118 

The  temple  at  Tanjore,  with  its  court  eight  hundred 
by  four  hundred  feet 1 1 8 

Its  multitude  of  chapels,  each  with  its  image  in 
stone  of  the  lingam,  or  phallus 119 

Its  central  image  of  a  bull,  the  favorite  animal  of 
Siva 119 

Its  tower,  or  gopura,  is  the  grandest  in  India 119 

Its  sculptures  of  gods  and  goddesses  wonderfully 
realistic 119 

Its  appurtenances  tawdry,  childish,  and  immoral...    120 

Yet  Tanjore  was  the  home,  and  is  the  tomb,  of 
Schwartz,  the  first  English  missionary  to  India..  120 

The  raja's  library  of  Oriental  manuscripts 121 

Madura,  the  center  of  Dravidian  worship,  one  hun- 
dred miles  farther  south 121 

Temple  built  about  two  great  shrines  for  the  god 
Siva  and  his  wife  Minakshi 121 

Five  great  pyramidal  towers  and  a  court  eight  hun- 
dred and  thirty  by  seven  hundred  and  thirty  feet  121 

The  "Golden  Lily  Tank,"  and  "The  Flail  of  a 
Thousand  Pillars  " 122 

Dark  alcoves  and  a  festival  night,  the  acme  of 
Hindu  religion 122 

The  palace  of  Tirumala  and  his  Teppa  Kulam  tank, 
one  thousand  feet  on  each  side 123 

The  noblest  sight  of  Madura  is  its  American  Con- 
gregational Mission 123 

Under  Dr.  J.  X.  Miller,  its  schools  and  seminaries 
are  revolutionizing  southern  India 124 


CONTENTS  XV11 

XII.  Two  WEEKS  IN  CEYLON 125-135 

Ceylon  not  a  part  of  India,  but  a  Crown  Colony  of 
Britain 127 

Colombo,  a  European  city,  and  English  the  best 
means  of  communication 127 

Buddhism,  crowded  out  of  India,  made  its  way 
southward 127 

A  sacred  tooth  of  Buddha  is  preserved  at  Kandy. . .    127 

Wesleyan  Methodist  College  and  English  Baptist 
College  at  Colombo 128 

The  Ananda  College,  a  theosophical  institution,  un- 
favorable to  Christianity 128 

A  refuge  in  Nurwara  Eliya,  six  thousand  two  hun- 
dred feet  above  the  sea 129 

Switzerland  without  its  ruggedness,  and  terraces  of 
tea-plants  lining  the  approaches  thither 129 

Forests  of  rubber  make  a  sea  of  verdure 130 

The  Missionary  Rest-house  at  Kandy 131 

The  famous  Buddhist  temple,  and  its  evening  wor- 
ship   131 

Its  library  the  only  sign  of  intelligence 131 

Church  of  the  English  Baptists  welcomes  us 132 

The  botanical  gardens,  wonderful  for  their  variety 
of  products 132 

Anurajahpura  and  its  ruined  pagoda,  a  solid  conical 
mass  of  brick 133 

One  thousand  six  hundred  pillars  of  stone,  the 
foundations  of  an  ancient  monastery 133 

Cremation  of  a  Buddhist  priest,  and  our  reception 
by  the  high  priest  of  the  remaining  temple 134 


XIII.  JAVA  AND  BUDDHISM 137-146 

Java,  the  jewel  of  the  Dutch  Crown,  has  thirty-five 
millions  of  people 139 

The  "  culture  system "  makes  it  immensely  pro- 
ductive    139 

Mistakes  of  Holland  in  matters  of  government  and 
education 140 

A  back-bone  of  volcanic  mountains  furnishes  unsur- 
passed railway  views 140 

Endless  fields  of  rice  and  sugar-cane  on  hillside  and 
plain 141 


XV111  CONTENTS 

A  passionate  people  reveal  themselves  in  their 
music,  their  shadow-dances,  their  use  of  the 
Malay  dagger 141 

The  new  policy  of  the  Dutch  government  shown  in 
the  botanical  gardens 142 

More  scientific  and  practical  than  those  of  Ceylon, 
they  minister  to  all  the  world 142 

Doctor  Lovink,  Dutch  minister  of  agriculture,  con- 
ducts us 143 

The  temple  of  Boro  Budor,  restored  after  ruin,  the 
greatest  wonder  of  Java 143 

Five  times  as  great  as  any  English  cathedral 143 

Sculptures  in  alto-relievo  that  would  stretch  three 
miles 144 

A  picture-gallery  of  the  life  of  Buddha. . 144 

Buddhism  has  no  personal  or  living  God,  and  no 
atonement  for  sin 1 45 

Boro  Budor,  slowly  disintegrating,  has  no  power  to 
combat  either  Mohammedanism  or  Christianity..  145 


XIV.  THE  RENAISSANCE  IN  INDIA 147-161 

This  essay,  a  summary  of  the  book  of  Professor 
Andrews,  formerly  of  Delhi,  now  associated  with 
Sir  Rabindranath  Tagore 149 

But  with  additions  and  conclusions  of  my  own. . . .    149 

The  Renaissance  in  Europe  needed  a  Reformation 
to  supplement  it,  and  a  similar  renaissance  in 
India  requires  a  similar  reformation 150 

History  of  religious  systems  in  India  begins  with 
the  Rig- Veda,  and  is  followed  by  the  Upani- 
shads 152 

Hindu  incarnations  are  not  permanent,  and  the  Tri- 
murti  is  not  the  Christian  Trinity 153 

The  Krishna  of  the  Puranas  is  a  model  of  the 
worst  forms  of  vice 154 

Deification  of  God's  works  fixes  the  distinctions  of 
caste,  and  the  degradation  of  woman 154 

Christianity  is  needed  to  unite  the  Hindu  and  the 
Moslem 155 

Signs  of  an  approaching  reformation  in  the  weak- 
ening of  class  barriers  and  the  spiritual  interpre- 
tation of  the  old  religions 156 


CONTEXTS  XIX 

The  Brahmo-Somaj  and  the  Arya-Samaj  aim  to 
bring  Hinduism  back  to  the  standards  of  the 
Vedas  158 

The  Aligarh  Movement  among  the  Mohammedans, 
and  the  Aligarh  College  in  Delhi 158 

Swami  Vivekananda,  and  his  denial  that  men  are 
sinners 159 

The  Theosophical  Society  and  Mrs.  Besant,  a  hin- 
drance to  missions 160 

Justice  Renade,  in  his  social  reform  movement,  sees 
in  Christianity  the  one  faith  which  can  unite  all 
races  and  all  religions  in  India 160 

In  Christ  alone  India's  renaissance  can  become  a 
complete  reformation 161 

XV.  MISSIONS  AND  SCRIPTURE 163-178 

S^me  critics  deny  Jesus'  authorship  of  the  "  Great 
Commission  " 165 

We  must  examine  "the  historical  method,"  so  called  165 

As  often  employed,  it  is  inductive  but  not  deductive, 
horizontal  but  not  vertical 166 

Deduction  from  God's  existence  normally  insures 
acceptance  of  Christ 168 

Deduction  from  Christ's  existence  normally  insures 
acceptance  of  Scripture 169 

Scripture  is  the  voice  and  revelation  of  the  eternal 
Christ 169 

The  exclusively  inductive  process  is  not  truly  his- 
torical   1 70 

Both  Paul  and  Peter  gained  their  theology  by  de- 
duction   171 

Since  experience  of  sin  and  of  Christ  is  knowledge, 
it  is  material  for  science 173 

The  eternal  Christ  guarantees  to  us  the  unity  of 
S  cripture 174 

Also  the  sufficiency  of  Scripture 175 

Also  the  authority  of  Scripture 176 

The  "  historical  method,"  as  ordinarily  employed, 
proceeds  and  ends  without  Christ 177 

It  therefore  treats  Scripture  as  a  man-made  book, 
and  denies  its  unity,  sufficiency,  and  authority. . .  177 

It  sees  in  the  Bible  not  an  organism,  pulsating  with 
divine  life,  but  only  a  congeries  of  earth-born 
fragments 177 


XX  CONTENTS 

XVI.  SCRIPTURE  AND  MISSIONS 179-198 

The  "historical  method"  finds  in  Psalm  no  only 
human  authorship 1 8 1 

And  contradicts  Christ  himself  by  denying  the  ref- 
erence in  the  psalm  to  him 182 

A  document  can  have  more  than  one  author,  shown 
in  art  as  well  as  literature 183 

Predictions  of  Christ  in  the  Old  Testament  con- 
vinced unbelieving  Jews 184 

The  "  historical  method "  finds  no  prediction  of 
Christ  in  Isaiah,  and  so  contradicts  John 184 

Effect  of  this  method  upon  the  interpretation  of  the 
New  Testament 185 

It  gives  us  no  assurance  of  Christ's  deity,  and 
ignores  Old  Testament  proofs  that  he  is  Prophet, 
Priest,  and  King 185 

Value  of  the  "  historical  method  "  when  not  exclu- 
sively inductive 1 86 

Effect  of  this  method,  as  often  employed,  upon  sys- 
tematic theology 187 

If  Scripture  has  no  unity,  no  systematic  theology 
is  possible 187 

Unitarian  acknowledgment  that  its  schools  have  no 
theology  at  all 189 

Effect  of  this  method  upon  our  theological  sem- 
inaries to  send  out  disseminators  of  doubts 189 

Effect  of  this  method  upon  the  churches  of  our 
denomination  to  destroy  all  reason  for  their  ex- 
istence    191 

Effect  of  this  method  upon  missions  to  supersede 
evangelism  by  education  and  to  lose  all  dynamic 
both  abroad  and  at  home 193 

This  method  was  "  made  in  Germany,"  and  must  be 
opposed  as  we  oppose  arbitrary  force  in  govern- 
ment    195 

The  remedy  is  a  spiritual  coming  of  Christ  in  the 
hearts  of  his  people 197 

XVII.  THE  THEOLOGY  OF  MISSIONS 199-212 

Is  man's  religious  nature  only  a  capacity  for  re- 
ligion ? 201 

The  will  is  never  passive,  the  candle  is  always 
burning 201 


CONTENTS  XXI 

Moslem  and  Hindu  alike  show  both  good  and  bad 
elements  in  their  worship -. 201 

Here  and  there  are  seekers  after  God,  and  such  are 
saved  through  Christ,  though  they  have  not  yet 
heard  his  name 202 

First  chapter  of  Romans  gives  us  the  best  phi- 
losophy of  heathenism 203 

Heathenism,  the  result  of  an  abnormal  and  down- 
ward evolution  204 

The  eternal  Christ  conducts  an  evolution  of  the 
wheat,  side  by  side  with  Satan's  evolution  of  the 
tares 204 

All  the  good  in  heathen  systems  is  the  work  of 
Christ,  and  we  may  utilize  their  grains  of  truth. .  205 

Illustrated  in  Hindu  incarnations  and  Moslem  faith 
in  God's  unity  and  personality 205 

Christ  alone  is  our  Peace,  and  he  alone  can  unite 
the  warring  elements  of  humanity 206 

A  moral  as  well  as  a  doctrinal  theology  is  needed  in 
heathendom 208 

But  external  reforms  without  regeneration  can 
never  bring  in  the  kingdom  of  God 209 

The  history  of  missions  proves  that  heart  must 
precede  intellect,  motive  must  accompany  example  210 

The  love  of  Christ  who  died  for  us  is  the  only 
constraining  power 210 

Only  his  deity  and  atonement  furnish  the  dynamic 
of  missions 211 

XVIII.  MISSIONS  AND  MISSIONARIES 213-223 

Missionary  work  results  in  a  healthy  growth  of 
the  worker 215 

The  successful  missionary  must  be  an  all-round  man  215 

He  secures  a  training  beyond  that  of  any  uni- 
versity course 216 

That  training  is  spiritual  as  well  as  intellectual...   216 

It  tends  to  make  him  doctrinally  sound  as  to 
Christ's  deity  and  atonement 217 

Or  convinces  him  that  he  has  no  proper  place  on  a 
mission  field 218 

A  valuable  lesson  for  our  societies  and  churches  at 
home 218 

New  Testament  polity,  as  well  as  doctrine,  is  tested 
by  missions „ 219 


XX11  CONTENTS 

Our  mission  churches  are  becoming  models  of  self- 
support,  self-government,  and  self-propagation.  .  .  219 

The  physical  environment  of  the  missionary  needs 
to  be  cared  for 219 

The  large  house,  many  servants,  and  an  automobile, 
are  great  and  almost  necessary  helps 220 

All  these  can  be  obtained  cheaply,  and  should  be 
provided 220 

Other  denominations  furnish  better  equipment  than 
ours 220 

Yet  the  days  of  missionary  hardship  are  well-nigh 
past 221 

Missionary  trials  are  mainly  social  and  spiritual ; 
and  there  are  enough  of  these 221 

But  faithful  work,  in  spite  of  hope  deferred,  will  be 
rewarded  at  last..  .  222 


A  WEEK  IN  JAPAN 


A  WEEK  IN  JAPAN 


THE  Pacific  Ocean  was  very  kind  to  us,  for  it  an- 
swered to  its  name,  and  was  pacific  beyond  all 
our  expectations.  Sixteen  days  of  smooth  seas  and 
lovely  weather  brought  us  by  way  of  Honolulu  to 
Yokohama.  Only  the  last  day  of  our  voyage  was 
dark  and  rainy.  But  though  the  rain  continued  after 
our  landing,  Japan  was  picturesque.  On  four  out  of 
our  six  days  we  drove  about,  shut  up  in  water-tight 
buggies  called  "  rickshaws."  They  were  like  one-hoss- 
shays,  through  whose  front  windows  of  isinglass  we 
looked  out  upon  the  bare  legs  of  our  engineer  and 
conductor,  who  took  the  place  of  the  horse  for  twenty- 
five  cents  an  hour. 

There  were  other  sights  on  these  rainy  days — end- 
less processions  of  slipshod  men  on  wooden  clogs, 
clattering  their  way  through  the  narrow  streets,  while 
they  protected  themselves  from  the  watery  downpour 
by  flat  oil-paper  umbrellas;  other  strong-limbed  men 
acting  as  wheel-horses  to  draw  or  push  incredible 
weights  of  lumber;  and  saving  themselves  from  the 
wet  by  bushy  coats  of  straw  that  made  them  look 
like  porcupines;  women,  little  and  big,  carrying  babies 
on  their  backs,  occasionally  a  girl,  aged  anywhere 
from  four  to  eight,  loaded  with  a  baby  aged  two; 
shops,  shops,  shops,  one-storied,  artistic,  fantastic, 
with  signs  on  which  Ah  Sing  and  Ah  Tong  have 

3 


4  A    TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 


mingled  Chinese  characters  and  English,  and  which 
inform  you  that  the  proprietors  can  furnish  you  with 
the  sake  of  Japan  or  the  gasoline  of  the  Standard  Oil 
Company;  these  things  convince  you  that  you  are  in 
the  midst  of  a  crowded  population  struggling  for 
subsistence  and  ready  to  work,  a  population  of  in- 
exhaustible vitality  and  enterprise. 

Our  first  rainy  day  was  distinguished  by  a  visit  to 
the  palatial  mansion  of  a  Japanese  millionaire.  Mr. 
Asano,  the  President  of  the  Steamship  Company  that 
brought  us  thither,  had  invited  the  whole  lot  of  first- 
class  passengers  to  afternoon  tea  at  his  house  in 
Tokyo.  That  house  is  a  veritable  museum  of  Japanese 
art.  It  reminded  us  of  the  collections  of  Mr.  J.  Pier- 
pont  Morgan.  There  was  a  great  retinue  of  servants, 
and  we  were  escorted  upon  arrival  to  one  of  the  top- 
most rooms,  where  we  were  served  with  tea  and  pre- 
sented with  symbolic  cakes  by  a  dozen  gorgeously  be- 
decked young  girls,  who  proved  to  be  the  children  and 
grandchildren  of  our  host.  This,  however,  was  only 
a  preparatory  welcome,  for  it  was  followed  by  the  real 
reception  in  a  great  audience-room  below,  where  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Asano,  together  with  their  eldest  son  and 
daughter,  gave  us  cordial  greetings.  A  couple  of 
hundred  of  our  fellow  passengers  were  gathered  there 
and  were  partaking  of  light  refreshments,  with  claret, 
tea,  and  mineral  waters,  while  an  expert  Japanese 
juggler  amused  them  with  his  feats  of  sleight  of 
hand.  The  tapestries  and  paintings  of  this  house 
were  exquisite  products  of  taste  and  skill,  and  the 
total  effect  was  that  of  great  wealth  accompanied 
by  true  love  for  the  beautiful.  But  it  was  the  mansion 


A    WEEK    IN*    JAPAN  5 

of  an  orthodox  Shinto  and  Buddhist,  for  in  every  large 
room  there  was  an  alcove  with  the  sitting  figure  of  a 
bronze  Buddha. 

A  more  distinctly  Christian  entertainment  for  that 
same  rainy  day  was  our  reception  by  the  Conference 
of  Baptist  missionaries  and  workers  at  the  new  Taber- 
nacle in  Tokyo.  They  had  been  called  to  meet  Doctoi 
Franklin  and  Doctor  Anderson,  who  had  been  sent 
by  our  Foreign  Missionary  Society  to  consult  with 
them  as  to  our  educational  policy  in  Japan.  We 
reached  the  Conference  on  its  last  day  of  meeting, 
and  we  had  a  most  valued  opportunity  of  observing 
its  method  of  procedure.  Half  of  those  present  were 
Japanese  workers  who  did  not  understand  English, 
and  it  was  a  new  experience  to  address  them  when 
every  word  had  to  be  interpreted.  The  social  inter- 
course that  followed  was  delightful,  for  it  enabled  us 
to  greet  our  former  pupils  in  considerable  numbers. 
We  then  took  lunch  at  the  house  of  Doctor  Axling, 
the  pastor  of  the  Tokyo  church,  while  Doctor  Tenny  is 
President  of  the  Theological  Seminary.  The  little  Japa- 
nese missionary  home,  with  its  tiny  secluded  garden, 
its  paper  partitions,  and  its  mingled  reminders  of  an 
American  household,  were  things  long  to  be  remem- 
bered. Not  less  to  be  noted  was  the  gratitude  for  our 
visit  which  was  shown  by  our  hosts.  We  had  regarded 
ourselves  as  the  persons  honored  and  entertained.  We 
learned  that  missionaries  in  a  heathen  land  wonder- 
fully appreciate  the  sight  and  the  companionship  of 
friends  from  their  distant  home. 

Even   more   unexpected   was   our  reception   at   the 
Women's  College  of  Japan.     Since  I  had  been  more 


4  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

mingled  Chinese  characters  and  English,  and  which 
inform  you  that  the  proprietors  can  furnish  you  with 
the  sake  of  Japan  or  the  gasoline  of  the  Standard  Oil 
Company;  these  things  convince  you  that  you  are  in 
the  midst  of  a  crowded  population  struggling  for 
subsistence  and  ready  to  work,  a  population  of  in- 
exhaustible vitality  and  enterprise. 

Our  first  rainy  day  was  distinguished  by  a  visit  to 
the  palatial  mansion  of  a  Japanese  millionaire.  Mr. 
Asano,  the  President  of  the  Steamship  Company  that 
brought  us  thither,  had  invited  the  whole  lot  of  first- 
class  passengers  to  afternoon  tea  at  his  house  in 
Tokyo.  That  house  is  a  veritable  museum  of  Japanese 
art.  It  reminded  us  of  the  collections  of  Mr.  J.  Pier- 
pont  Morgan.  There  was  a  great  retinue  of  servants, 
and  we  were  escorted  upon  arrival  to  one  of  the  top- 
most rooms,  where  we  were  served  with  tea  and  pre- 
sented with  symbolic  cakes  by  a  dozen  gorgeously  be- 
decked young  girls,  who  proved  to  be  the  children  and 
grandchildren  of  our  host.  This,  however,  was  only 
a  preparatory  welcome,  for  it  was  followed  by  the  real 
reception  in  a  great  audience-room  below,  where  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Asano,  together  with  their  eldest  son  and 
daughter,  gave  us  cordial  greetings.  A  couple  of 
hundred  of  our  fellow  passengers  were  gathered  there 
and  were  partaking  of  light  refreshments,  with  claret, 
tea,  and  mineral  waters,  while  an  expert  Japanese 
juggler  amused  them  with  his  feats  of  sleight  of 
hand.  The  tapestries  and  paintings  of  this  house 
were  exquisite  products  of  taste  and  skill,  and  the 
total  effect  was  that  of  great  wealth  accompanied 
by  true  love  for  the  beautiful.  But  it  was  the  mansion 


A    WEEK    IN*   JAPAN  5 

of  an  orthodox  Shinto  and  Buddhist,  for  in  every  large 
room  there  was  an  alcove  with  the  sitting  figure  of  a 
bronze  Buddha. 

A  more  distinctly  Christian  entertainment  for  that 
same  rainy  day  was  our  reception  by  the  Conference 
of  Baptist  missionaries  and  workers  at  the  new  Taber- 
nacle in  Tokyo.  They  had  been  called  to  meet  Doctoi 
Franklin  and  Doctor  Anderson,  who  had  been  sent 
by  our  Foreign  Missionary  Society  to  consult  with 
them  as  to  our  educational  policy  in  Japan.  We 
reached  the  Conference  on  its  last  day  of  meeting, 
and  we  had  a  most  valued  opportunity  of  observing 
its  method  of  procedure.  Half  of  those  present  were 
Japanese  workers  who  did  not  understand  English, 
and  it  was  a  new  experience  to  address  them  when 
every  word  had  to  be  interpreted.  The  social  inter- 
course that  followed  was  delightful,  for  it  enabled  us 
to  greet  our  former  pupils  in  considerable  numbers. 
We  then  took  lunch  at  the  house  of  Doctor  Axling, 
the  pastor  of  the  Tokyo  church,  while  Doctor  Tenny  is 
President  of  the  Theological  Seminary.  The  little  Japa- 
nese missionary  home,  with  its  tiny  secluded  garden, 
its  paper  partitions,  and  its  mingled  reminders  of  an 
American  household,  were  things  long  to  be  remem- 
bered. Not  less  to  be  noted  was  the  gratitude  for  our 
visit  which  was  shown  by  our  hosts.  We  had  regarded 
ourselves  as  the  persons  honored  and  entertained.  We 
learned  that  missionaries  in  a  heathen  land  wonder- 
fully appreciate  the  sight  and  the  companionship  of 
friends  from  their  distant  home. 

Even  more  unexpected   was  our  reception  at  the 
Women's  College  of  Japan.     Since  I  had  been  more 


6  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

than  thirty  years  a  trustee  of  Vassaf  College,  and  for 
some  years  chairman  of  its  board  of  trustees,  Mrs. 
Strong  and  I  were  the  guests  of  honor,  and  I  was 
the  first  speaker  called  upon.  Before  me  were  five 
hundred  young  women  in  more  somber  dress  than 
prevails  at  Vassar.  All  rose  to  welcome  me  at  the 
beginning  of  my  address,  and  all  rose  again  to  thank 
me  at  its  conclusion.  Most  of  these  students  under- 
stood only  Japanese  and  needed  an  interpreter.  Doc- 
tor Zumoto,  the  accomplished  editor  of  the  Japanese 
"  Herald  of  Asia,"  translated  my  address  into  his  own 
language  after  I  had  finished,  having  taken  notes  while 
I  spoke.  Until  the  very  end  I  had  the  impression 
that  this  was  a  Christian  college,  and  I  innocently 
made  the  Lord  Jesus  the  center  and  substance  of  my 
remarks,  declaring  that  the  renaissance  of  learning  in 
Japan  needed  to  be  supplemented  by  a  reformation  of 
religion.  Only  when  the  evening  was  over  did  I  learn 
that  the  institution  was  not  only  undenominational, 
but  also  non-religious,  having  Buddhist  as  well  as 
Christian  professors.  Doctors  Anderson  and  Franklin 
were  also  guests,  and  when  they  followed  me,  they 
made  the  same  mistake  and  made  Christian  addresses. 
But  the  Japanese  management  is  very  polite  and  very 
liberal,  and  even  in  the  dinner  that  followed  our 
faux  pas  did  not  provoke  a  word  of  criticism.  The 
guests  at  that  dinner  served  by  the  students  were 
from  the  most  prominent  educational  institutions  of 
Japan.  We  highly  appreciated  the  honor  done  us,  and 
did  not  regret  that  in  our  ignorance  of  the  situation 
we  had  given  to  that  distinguished  audience  the  true 
gospel  of  Christ. 


A    WEEK    IN    JAPAN  7 

Another  dinner  of  a  very  different  sort  was  that 
which  we  ourselves  gave  at  the  Grand  Hotel  of  Yoko- 
hama to  the  Rochester  men.  To  my  surprise  twenty- 
four  persons  sat  down,  but  this  number  included  at 
least  ten  of  the  wives.  Chiba  and  Axling,  Tenny  and 
Topping,  the  Fishers,  father  and  son,  Clement,  Brown, 
Benninghoff,  Takagaki,  Kawaguchi,  all  except  the  last 
with  their  wives,  made  up  the  list.  I  was  proud  of 
them,  for  they  are  leaders  of  thought  and  of  education 
in  Japan.  Only  Doctor  Bearing's  absence  on  furlough 
in  America,  a  furlough  ended  only  by  his  lamented 
death,  prevented  us  from  inviting  him,  though  he  was 
not  a  Rochester  man.  Reminiscences  of  seminary  life 
were  both  pathetic  and  amusing  at  that  dinner.  One 
thing  impressed  itself  upon  my  mind  and  memory: 
Our  missionaries  have  not  lost  their  sense  of  humor. 
Under  all  their  burdens  of  anxiety  and  responsibility 
they  have  retained  their  sanity,  their  hopefulness,  and 
their  good  fellowship.  The  hilarity  of  our  gathering 
was  the  bubbling  over  of  cheerful  dispositions,  and  the 
safety-valve  gave  evidence  that  there  were  large  re- 
serves of  steam.  Missionaries  are  not  a  solemn  set. 
They  are  only  a  good  set  of  human  beings  made  in  the 
divine  image,  for  is  it  not  written  that  even  "  He  that 
sitteth  in  the  heavens  shall  laugh  "  ? 

The  next  day  was  the  brightest  of  the  bright.  We 
took  advantage  of  it  to  visit  the  great  temple  of 
Kamakura,  and  to  inspect  the  greatest  artistic  monu- 
ment of  Japan,  the  bronze  image  of  Buddha.  It  is  a 
sitting  statue,  with  folded  hands  and  eyes  closed,  as 
if  absorbed  in  mystic  contemplation  of  his  own  excel- 
lence as  a  manifestation  of  deity,  and  careless  of  the 


8  A    TOUR    OF   THE    MISSIONS 

sorrows  and  sins  of  the  world.  The  great  bronze 
image  is  fifty  feet  high,  but  it  is  hollow.  We  entered 
it,  climbed  up  by  ladders  to  its  shoulders,  and  looked 
out  of  windows  in  its  back.  Its  hollowness  seemed 
symbolic,  for  it  has  only  the  outward  semblance  of 
divinity  and  is  deaf  to  all  human  entreaties.  On  that 
same  day  we  visited  the  temple  of  Hachiman,  the 
god  of  war,  most  spacious  and  impressive  in  its  park- 
like  surroundings  of  ancient  trees  and  noble  gateways, 
but  fearful  in  its  accompanying  images  of  revenge 
and  slaughter.  Humanity  needs  compassion  in  the 
Godhead.  The  Japanese  have  felt  this,  and  they  have 
invented  a  goddess  of  mercy,  Kwannon  by  name. 
Her  shrine  is  the  richest  in  Japan.  It  constitutes  one 
of  the  greatest  attractions  of  the  capital.  Millions 
visit  it  every  year,  and  the  offerings  of  its  worshipers 
support  a  whole  colony  of  Buddhist  priests.  The 
avenue  leading  to  the  temple  is  lined  with  shops  where 
mementoes  of  the  goddess  may  be  purchased,  as  in 
Ephesus  of  old  silver  shrines  might  be  bought  in  honor 
of  the  great  goddess  Diana.  It  is  the  old  story  of 
buyers  and  sellers  in  the  Jewish  temple.  It  was 
most  pathetic  to  see  a  well-dressed  and  handsome 
woman  bend  herself  almost  double  before  the  image, 
clap  her  hands  to  call  the  attention  of  the  goddess,  and 
then  fold  them  in  prayer,  possibly  for  the  child  that 
had  hitherto  been  denied  her.  It  is.  well  understood  in 
this  temple  that,  until  the  clink  of  coin  is  heard  in 
the  collection-box,  it  is  vain  to  suppose  that  even  the 
goddess  of  mercy  will  listen  to  a  prayer. 

The  god  of  war  reigns  in  Japan,  rather  than  the 
goddess  of  mercy.    War  is  more  profitable.    The  sale 


A   WEEK   IN    JAPAN  9 

of  munitions  to  the  Russian  Government  is  enriching 
Japan,  as  our  sales  to  the  Allies  are  enriching  us.  The 
love  of  gain  is  an  obstacle  to  the  success  of  the  gospel, 
here  as  well  as  in  America.  Nothing  but  a  mighty  in- 
fluence of  the  Holy  Spirit  can  convince  Japan  of  sin, 
and  bring  her  to  the  feet  of  Christ.  The  work  of  our 
missionaries,  however,  is  permeating  all  the  strata  of 
society.  Western  science  and  Western  literature  are 
so  bound  up  with  Christianity  that  Japan  cannot  easily 
accept  them  without  also  accepting  Christ. 

We  wished  to  see  mission  work  in  a  country  field, 
and  we  begged  Mrs.  Fisher  to  go  with  us  to  Kana- 
gawa,  a  suburb  of  Yokohama,  where  an  educated 
milkman  is  pastor,  and  where  the  Mary  Colby  School 
of  Christian  girls  attends  the  worship  of  his  church. 
The  reverence  and  sincerity  of  the  service  impressed 
us.  The  warmth  and  abandon  of  the  singing  put  to 
shame  our  Western  quartet  choirs.  Here  is  a  pastor 
who  prefers  to  supplement  his  meager  salary  by  sell- 
ing milk  on  week-days,  rather  than  give  up  the  satis- 
faction of  seeing  his  church  entirely  self-supporting. 
It  seemed  to  me  the  model  of  a  good  ministry,  and 
the  prophecy  of  a  multitude  of  New  Testament 
churches  in  Japan,  manned  and  financed  and  governed 
by  the  Japanese  themselves.  So  long  as  we  of  the 
West  furnish  both  the  preachers  and  their  salaries,  the 
Japanese  will  not  learn  to  depend  upon  their  own  ad- 
ministration or  their  own  giving,  and  we  will  not 
have  churches  organized  on  correct  principles  and  so 
rooted  in  the  soil  that  they  can  stand  the  shocks  of  time 
and  endlessly  propagate  the  gospel.  May  "  the  little 
one  "  in  Kanagawa  "  become  a  thousand  " ! 


10  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

Japan  is  a  country  where  "  every  prospect  pleases, 
and  only  man  is  vile."  Immorality  is  its  curse.  There 
is  little  drunkenness  indeed,  and  gambling  is  strictly 
prohibited.  But  the  relations  of  the  sexes  are  almost 
wholly  unregulated.  Patriotism  and  filial  devotion 
take  exaggerated  forms,  and  girls  can  lead  a  life  of 
shame  in  order  to  provide  means  for  the  education  of 
their  brothers.  General  Nogi  and  his  wife  can  com- 
mit suicide  when  his  sons  are  killed  in  battle,  and  the 
whole  country  can  regard  it  as  so  noble  a  deed  that  the 
general's  desire  to  extinguish  his  family  name  is  not 
permitted  to  prevent  the  adoption  of  it  by  another. 
The.  Japanese  are  a  nation  of  wonderful  natural  gifts. 
Honor,  enterprise,  submission,  accessibility  to  new 
ideas,  powers  of  imitation  and  invention,  make  them 
the  leaders  of  the  Orient.  Steamships  of  twenty-two 
thousand  tons,  and  equal  to  any  Atlantic  Cunarders, 
yet  built  in  their  own  dockyards  by  shipwrights  who 
twenty  years  ago  knew  nothing  of  their  trade,  are  a 
proof  of  extraordinary  plasticity  and  ability.  Civiliza- 
tion and  Christianity  may  find  new  expression,  if  the 
Japanese  are  subdued  by  the  Cross  of  Christ. 

My  interest  in  missions  has  been  doubled  since  I 
came  in  contact  with  the  practical  work  of  our  mis- 
sionaries. We  have  able  and  devoted  representatives 
on  this  foreign  field,  and  I  believe  that  God  will  make 
them  mighty  to  dethrone  Buddhism,  and  to  crown 
Christ  Lord  of  all.  Yes,  "  every  prospect  pleases." 
When  I  sailed  through  the  Inland  Sea  of  Japan,  two 
hundred  and  forty  miles  long,  studded  with  hundreds 
of  islands  small  and  great,  islands  often  surmounted 
with  glistening  white  temples  or  fortifications,  I  thought 


A    WEEK    IN    JAPAN  II 

our  Thousand  Islands  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  even 
the  Isles  of  the  Greek  yEgean,  were  not  to  be  mentioned 
in  comparison.  The  landlocked  harbor  of  Nagasaki, 
with  its  encircling  hills,  is  finer  than  our  Golden  Gate 
of  the  Pacific.  Fuji-yama,  snow-capped  and  sym- 
metrical, seen  against  the  crimson  sunset  sky,  is  more 
beautiful  even  than  Mount  Ranier  when  seen  from 
Tacoma,  or  Vesuvius  when  seen  from  Naples.  Japan 
is  a  land  for  poetry  and  song,  a  land  to  awaken  the 
loftiest  patriotism,  a  land  to  inspire  and  lead  the  world. 
Provided,  ah  yes!  provided,  it  can  be  converted  to 
Christ,  and  made  his  servant.  The  Japanese  is  a 
natural  orator;  he  has  organizing  ability  of  the  highest 
order;  he  is  accessible,  yet  independent.  Now  is  the 
time  to  make  him  a  preacher  of  the  gospel  to  all  the 
East.  China  and  India  have  already  felt  the  influence 
of  his  military  and  political  progress.  Let  us,  by 
pouring  in  the  light  of  Christianity,  make  him  also 
their  leader  in  true  religion ! 


II 

A  WEEK-END  IN  CHINA 


A  WEEK-END  IN  CHINA 


HONGKONG  is  a  city  wonderful  for  situation- and  for 
trade.  It  has  a  landlocked  harbor  encircled  by  pre- 
cipitous hills  and  large  enough  to  float  the  navies  of 
the  world.  It  is  the  second  largest  port  on  earth  for 
exports  and  imports,  over  six  hundred  million  dollars' 
worth  in  a  year.  It  is  a  meeting-place  of  the  East  and 
the  West,  a  fortress  of  Britain  in  China,  a  conglomera- 
tion of  people,  a  center  of  influence  for  Japan  and  for 
India,  an  object-lesson  in  sanitation,  education,  and 
municipal  government.  The  dominating  religion  is 
that  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  the  Hongkong 
University,  though  endowed  in  part  by  wealthy 
Chinese,  follows  English  models  and  has  a  staff  of 
English  professors. 

I  mention  Hongkong  only  to  make  more  clear  my 
description  of  Swatow,  its  northern  neighbor.  The 
situation  of  Swatow  is  very  like  that  of  Hongkong.  A 
noble  harbor  encircled  by  steep  hills,  it  is-  one  of  the 
chief  ports  between  Hongkong  and  Shanghai,  and  only 
a  single  night's  steamer-ride  from  Hongkong.  Its 
attraction  to  us  lay  in  the  fact  that  it  is  more  Chinese 
than  Hongkong,  a  principal  seat  of  Presbyterian  and 
Baptist  missions,  'and  not  so  dominated  as  is  Hong- 
kong by  the  Church  of  England.  As  Hongkong  is 
an  island,  so  our  Baptist  Mission  Compound  is  on  an 
island,  separated  from  the  city  of  Swatow  by  the  bay 

15 


l6  A   TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

on  which  hundreds  of  sampans  and  fishing-boats  with 
lateen  sails  are  always  riding,  and  at  whose  wharves 
many  a  great  steamship  is  loading  or  unloading  freight. 
When  our  vessel  arrived,  we  were  quickly  surrounded 
by  a  multitude  of  smaller  craft,  manned  by  clamorous 
tradesmen  selling  wares  or  seeking  employment.  The 
commissioner  of  British  customs,  who  was  our  fellow 
passenger,  most  courteously  invited  us  to  share  his 
motor-launch,  and  when  we  had  landed  on  the  other 
side  of  the  bay  he  sent  us  up  the  hill  to  the  mission 
compound  in  two  of  his  sedan-chairs,  each  one  borne 
by  two  stout  men  in  picturesque  uniform  and  wear- 
ing the  insignia  of  the  customs  office. 

A  word  about  the  English  customs  may  be  interest- 
ing. To  satisfy  English  creditors,  and  later,  to  pay  in- 
terest on  indemnities  for  the  Boxer  uprising,  China 
mortgaged  the  larger  part  of  her  duties  on  foreign  im- 
ports. Sir  Robert  Hart  was  appointed  Inspector  Gen- 
eral, to  superintend  this  collection  of  duties.  He  in- 
troduced system  and  honesty,  where  before  there  had 
been  only  disorder  and  peculation.  From  twenty  to 
thirty  million  dollars  are  in  this  way  collected  every 
year.  Swatow  is  the  third  port  in  the  amount  thus 
obtained,  itself  furnishing  two  to  three  millions  of 
the  aggregate  result  But  this  putting  her  collection 
of  customs  into  the  hands-  of  foreigners,  though  it  has 
taught  China  her  own  wastefulness  and  the  supe- 
riority of  Western  finance,  is  a  burden  so  humiliating 
that  it  cannot  always  continue.  When  China  fully 
awakes,  she  will  realize  her  strength  and  will  reclaim 
what  her  weakness  ceded  to  Great  Britain. 

Our  mission  compound  is  one  of  the  noblest  in  the 


A    WEEK-END    IN    CHINA  IJ 

East.  It  is  due  to  the  foresight  and  executive  ability 
of  Dr.  William  Ashmore,  Senior.  He  began  his  mis- 
sionary work  in  Bangkok,  Siam,  but  was  transferred 
by  our  Missionary  Union  to  Swatow,  with  the  view 
of  opening  China  to  our  missionary  efforts.  He  had 
Irish  blood  in  his  veins.  He  was  witty  and  eloquent, 
fervid  and  passionate.  But  he  was  also  a  man  of  grit, 
and  a  hero  of  the  faith.  He  wanted  a  quiet  base  of 
supplies  from  which  he  could  send  out  expeditions 
into  the  heart  of  China.  He  had  no  means  of  any  ac- 
count But  he  saw  the  possibilities  in  these  steep  and 
barren  hillsides  opposite  Swatow,  and  for  six  hun- 
dred dollars  he  bought  a  tract  which  he  gradually 
turned  into  a  garden,  with  twenty  mission  buildings 
and  residences  so  thrust  into  the  rocks  and  so  over- 
hanging one  another,  that  the  whole  plant  seems  a 
miracle  of  engineering.  Like  a  fortress,  it  commands 
the  city  of  Swatow  across  the  bay,  very  much  as 
Governor's  Island  commands  New  York.  From  its 
church  and  its  schools  have  gone  out  a  score  of  evan- 
gelists and  native  pastors,  to  turn  Swatow  and  the 
whole  country  within  a  radius  of  a  hundred  miles  into 
a  present  seed-plot  arid  a  future  garden  of  the  Lord. 

William"  Ashmore,  Senior,  died  seven  years  ago. 
But  he  left  a  son  of  the  same  name,  who  is  a  Chinese 
scholar  of  wide  reputation,  a  sound  theologian,  and 
a  leader  greatly  beloved.  He  has  nearly  completed  a 
translation  of  the  Bible  into  the  colloquial  Chinese — 
a  felt  need  of  many  years.  At  his  house,  so  wedged 
into  the  rocky  hillside  that  a  typhoon  might  seem  equal 
to  washing  it  down  into  the  bay,  we  were  most  hos- 
pitably entertained.  Here  we  spent  a  memorable  Sab- 


1 8  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

bath  Day.  At  the  church  service,  at  least  five  hundred 
church-members  and  pupils  of  the  various  schools 
were  gathered,  and  I  addressed  them  on  "  Faith,  as 
Both  a  Giving  and  a  Taking  " — a  giving  of  one's  self, 
and  a  taking  of  Christ  to  be  ours.  Doctor  Ashmore 
interpreted  my  talk  to  the  audience,  sentence  by  sen- 
tence. The  whole  service  was  to  me  an  inspiring  illus- 
tration of  New  Testament  order  and  simplicity,  for 
my  address  and  the  sermon  of  Doctor  Ashmore  which 
followed  had  been  preceded  by  free  participation  of 
members  of  the  church,  in  which  one  happy  father 
arose  to  give  thanks  for  the  birth  of  a  girl-baby,  after 
five  sons  had  been  given  him — a  great  change  from  the 
time  when  new-born  girls  were  despised  and  often 
thrown  out  into  the  street.  This  reverent  congrega- 
tion, worshiping  God  in-  freedom  and  sincerity,  seemed 
the  prophecy  of  a  redeemed  China.  This  congeries 
of  schools,  from  kindergarten  to  theological  seminary, 
with  Ashmore,  Capen,  Page,  and  Waters  for  in- 
structors, and  Groesbeck,  Speicher,  Lewis,  Foster, 
and  others  for  evangelists,  has  already  permeated  a 
whole  province  with  Christian  teaching.  It  needs  an 
institutional  plant  in  the  city,  where  it  already  has  a 
noble  location,  and  it  also  needs  a  motor-launch  to 
carry  its  students  to  the  field  across,  the*  bay,  where 
they  can  find  opportunity  to  win  the  multitude  to 
Christ. 

Even  Swatow  is  partly  Anglicized.  We  wished  to 
see  old  China,  heathen  China,  and  Brother  Groesbeck 
gave  us  the  opportunity.  Only  twenty  miles  from 
Swatow  lies  the  city  of  Chao-yang,  where  this  pioneer 
missionary  has  for  eighteen  years  been  stationed. 


A    WEEK-END   IN    CHINA  19 

Chao-yang  is  a  larger  city  than  Swatow;  the  Chinese 
count  it  as  containing  a  population  of  three  hundred 
thousand.  It  is  the  converging  point  of  all  the  trade 
that  reaches  Swatow  from  a  hundred  miles  to  the  south 
and  the  west.  Yet  all  this  trade  is  conducted  through 
a  narrow  canal,  so  congested  with  boats  that  there 
are  innumerable  delays.  Even  when  the  boats  reach 
the  waters  of  the  bay,  the  remaining  channel  is  shallow 
for  lack  of  dredging,  and  launch-progress  is  very 
slow.  We  had  ocular  proof  of  this  latter  evil ;  but  we 
at  last  reached  the  dock. 

Then  came  a  reception  entirely  new  to  our  experi- 
ence, and  one  which  we  can  never  forget.  Eighty 
young  men  from  the  mission  school  met  us,  all  in 
white  uniforms  with  sashes  of  blue.  We  passed 
through  their  lines,  forty  boys  on  each  side  baring  their 
heads  as  we  passed.  Then  a  procession  was  formed. 
A  brass  band,  with  bugles  and  resounding  drums,  led 
the  way.  The  student  escort  followed.  After  the  long 
rows  of  boys  came  an  honor-squad  of  Chinese  sol- 
diers, shouldering  their  guns  and  bearing  the  Chinese 
and  the  American  flags.  This  portion  of  the  escort  had 
been  furnished  by  the  Chinese  governor,  who  in  this 
way  certainly  showed  ,his  friendly  regard  for  the 
American  mission.  We  concluded  the  procession,  sit- 
ting in  our  sedan-chairs,  each  of  our  party  of  four 
borne  upon  the  shoulders  of  four  men.  The  band 
struck  up,  a  great  explosion  of  firecrackers  ensued,  and 
we  began  our  journey  of  a  mile  and  a  half  to  the  gates 
of  the  city,  and  then  two  miles  and  a  half  farther 
through  its  crowded  streets,  until  we  reached  the  mis- 
sion buildings  and  the  residence  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 


2O  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

Groesbeck  on  the  other  side  of  the  town.  The  Chinese 
are  great  on  ceremonial,  and  all  this  reception  had 
been  arranged  by  the  students  themselves,  in  honor 
of  Mr.  Groesbeck's  teacher  and  his  teacher's  wife. 
Needless  to  say  that  I  was  astounded  at  such  a  recep- 
tion, for  Augustus  Caesar  never  made  an  imperial 
entry  in  Rome  more  thrilling  than  the  triumphal  entry 
which  Augustus  Strong  made  that  day  into  the  great 
city  of  Chao-yang. 

Mr.  Groesbeck  said  that  no  public  notice  had  been 
given  of  our  coming.  Yet  the  whole  population  of 
three  hundred  thousand  seemed  to  have  come  out  to 
meet  us.  Imagine  a  street  two  and  a  half  miles  long, 
but  only  ten  to  fifteen  feet  wide,  thronged  with  water- 
carriers  and  beasts  of  burden  compelled  to  give  way 
to  our  great  procession!  Every  nook  and  corner  of 
the  way,  the  fronts  of  the  one-storied  shops  and  the 
entrances  to  the  cross-streets,  were  all  a  perfect  sea  of 
faces — rows  of  children  little  and  big  overtopped  by 
rows  of  half-naked  men,  with  scores  of  women  peering 
wistfully  from  windows  in  the  rear — faces  by  thou- 
sands and  tens  of  thousands,  till  it  seemed  as  if  the 
whole  population  of  the  planet  had  emptied  itself  into 
Chao-yang.  I  looked  upon  hundreds  of  splendid  forms 
of  men,  naked  above  the  waist,  and  carrying  heads 
worthy  of  notice  from  any  sculptor,  none  of  them 
hateful,  all  of  them  impressed  and  wondering,  and  they 
seemed  to  me  the  embodiment  of  China  crying  out  for 
God.  When  we  were  only  half-way  through  the  city, 
the  endless  masses  of  humanity  had  so  impressed  me 
that  I  could  not  restrain  the  tears.  The  sight  was 
simply  overwhelming.  And  all  this  the  parish  of  one 


A    WEEK-END   IN    CHINA  21 

man!  It  is  to  save  this  great  city,  now  almost  wholly 
given  to  idolatry,  that  Mr.  Groesbeck  asks  for  money 
to  build  in  its  very  center  an  assembly-room  and  an 
institutional  church,  and  that  Doctor  Lesher  asks  for 
a  hospital  building  to  facilitate  his  medical  work. 

I  made  an  address  to  those  eighty  boys  that  evening, 
as  they  stood  at  attention  before  me.  Half  of  them 
were  still  heathen,  but  their  fathers  had  sent  them  to 
this  Christian  school,  believing  that  they  needed  a 
better  religion  than  that  of  Confucius  or  of  Buddha. 
I  urged  them  to  become  soldiers  of  Christ,  and  to  fol- 
low him  as  their  Commander.  I  did  not  conceal  from 
them  the  fact  that  such  following  might  involve  op- 
position and  earthly  loss.  But  I  promised  them  that, 
if  they  suffered  with  Christ,  they  would  also  reign 
with  him. 

We  returned  from  Chao-yang  very  sober  and 
thoughtful,  for  our  visit  had  been  a  revelation  of  ap- 
palling needs.  Swatow  seemed  a  paradise  after  such  a 
visit.  The  smiling  faces  of  so  many  Christians,  and  the 
signs  of  a  truly  Christian  civilization,  inspired  me  with 
new  hope  for  the  future.  But  our  time  had  come  for 
leaving  China,  at  least  temporarily,  and  India  was  at 
once  to  be  visited.  Our  departure  from  Swatow  was 
almost  as  spectacular  as  our  entry  into  Chao-yang. 
There  was  no  military  guard,  and  there  were  no  fire- 
crackers, but  there  was  a  fine  brass  band  of  academy 
boys,  to  lead  our  procession  of  sedan-chairs,  as  we 
passed  through  the  long  lines  of  scholars  who  had 
gathered  with  their  teachers  to  bid  us  farewell.  The 
schools  were  all  represented.  First  came  the  little 
kindergartners,  then  pupils  of  the  grammar  school, 


22  A   TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

the  girls'  school,  the  women's  school,  the  Bible- 
women's  training-school,  the  boys'  academy,  and 
finally,  the  theological  seminary.  They  numbered 
more  than  three  hundred  in  all.  Some  of  the  teachers 
accompanied  us  to  the  steamer.  We  parted  from  them 
with  regret,  but  we  were  thankful  that  they  could  re- 
main to  prepare  the  way  for  a  new  religion,  education, 
and  civilization  in  China. 

My  week-end  in  China  leaves  me  with  a  new  sense 
of  the  vastness  of  the  heathen  world,  and  of  its  ab- 
solute dependence  upon  Christ,  as  its  only  possible 
Saviour.  The  question  whether  the  heathen  will  ever 
be  saved  if  we  do  not  give  them  the  gospel,  is  not  so 
serious  a  one  for  us  as  the  other  question  whether  we 
ourselves  will  ever  be  saved  if  we  do  not  give  them 
the  gospel. 


Ill 


MANILA,  SINGAPORE,  AND 
PENANG 


MANILA,  SINGAPORE,  AND 
PENANG 


EACH  of  these  cities  might  seem  to  be  the  New 
Jerusalem,  if  you  were  to  see  only  its  European  part 
and  the  dress  of  its  inhabitants.  Their  European 
residents  are  all  arrayed  in  white.  Not  all  of  them 
are  saints,  however.  The  white  is  purely  external  and 
compulsory.  Heat  is  a  great  leveler,  and  we  are  near- 
ing  the  equator.  When  we  approached  Manila  we 
were  in  the  tail  of  a  typhoon,  but  the  danger  was  past. 
Indeed,  since  we  left  San  Francisco,  we  have  encoun- 
tered no  storm,  have  had  only  smooth  seas,  and  have 
witnessed  continually  what  ^Eschylus  called  "  the  in- 
numerable laughter  of  the  ocean  waves." 

It  was  pleasant  to  perceive  that  American  enterprise 
and  administration  have  transformed  Manila,  the 
capital  of  the  Philippine  Islands,  from  a  medieval  into 
a  modern  city.  Its  newly  constructed  streets  and  pave- 
ments, water- works  and  drainage,  electricity  and  the 
trolley,  have  turned  this  old  and  dilapidated  Spanish 
town  into  a  place  of  order  and  beauty.  Its  parks  and 
gardens,  its  municipal  buildings  and  hospitals,  are  an 
object-lesson  to  all  beholders.  The  walls  of  the  fort 
still  remain,  but  the  moat  has  been  filled  up.  The 
Roman  Catholic  Cathedral  shows  the  large  designs 
of  a  former  priesthood  to  capture  the  people  by  archi- 
tecture and  ceremonial.  But  Protestant  churches,  mis- 

25 


26  A   TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

sions,  and  schools,  are  coming  to  have  the  first  place 
in  popular  esteem.  The  former  palace  of  the  Spanish 
governor  is  now  the  meeting-place  of  the  democratic 
legislature,  and  the  Jones  Bill,  recently  passed  by  our 
Congress,  but  now  locally  known. as»"  the  Bill  Jones," 
has  given. hopes  of  a  complete  and  speedy  Filipino  in- 
dependence. 

Our  observation  of  the  place,  and  our  intercourse 
with  residents  of  Manila,  lead  us  to  doubt  the  wisdom 
of  our  immediate  relinquishment  of  authority  over 
these  islands.  Eager  as  are  the  Filipino  leaders  for 
self-government,  they  have  not  yet  learned  the  art 
of  self-restraint.  The  recent  trouble  in  the  great  hos- 
pital illustrates  this.  Its  American  superintendent  has 
resigned  his  office,  for  the  reason  that  his  Filipino 
staff  and  subordinates  conspired  to  make  discipline  and 
sanitary  regulations  impossible.  They  desired  to' man- 
age the  institution  themselves,  when  they  were  incom- 
petent to  enforce  cleanliness  and  order.  What  happens 
in  hospital  work  happens  also  in  all  branches  of  civil 
administration.  It  will  take  a  whole  generation  to 
raise  up  officials  who  can  be  trusted  to  do  their  work 
for  the  public  good,  rather  than  to  provide  comfortable 
and  remunerative  positions  for  themselves. 

We  visited  the  spot,  five  miles  away,  where  our 
American  troops,  under  Admiral.  Dewey,  landed  to  be- 
siege the  town.  We  motored  to  Fort  McKinley  also, 
where  our  soldiers  still  command  the  situation.  But 
our  main  interest  was  in  the  mission  schools  and  in 
the  interdenominational  theological  seminary.  In  these 
educational  institutions  all  the  instruction  is  in  the 
English  language.  They  are  Americanizing  as*  well  as 


MANILA,    SINGAPORE,    AND    PENANG  2? 

evangelizing  the  population.  The  establishment  of 
universal  and  compulsory  school  attendance  will  in  a 
few  years  turn  a  Spanish-speaking  into  an  English- 
speaking  people,  and  will  unify  the  education  and  the 
civilization  of  the  islands.  Nothing  indeed  is  more 
remarkable  in  the  Orient  than  the  gradual  super- 
seding of  the  native  dialects  by  the  printed  and  spoken 
English.  In  the  great  country  of  India,  it  is  to  be 
remembered,  English  is  the  required  language  in  school 
and  court,  as  well  as  in  every  government  office.  Even 
the  Romanizing  of  written  Chinese  and  Japanese  will 
make  vastly  easier  the  political  unity  and  the  religious 
evangelization  of  China  and  Japan. 

When  we  reached  Singapore,  we  found  ourselves  in 
one  of  the  world's  greatest  ports  of  entry.  It  is  also 
one  of  the  keys  to  the  Orient,  as  Sir  Thomas  Raffles 
perceived  more  than  a  century  ago.  Its  splendid  gov- 
ernment buildings  and  its  strong  fortifications  show 
that  the  British  propose  to  hold  it  to  the  end.  The 
recent  incipient  revolt,  which  was  fortunately  nipped 
in  the  bud  when  it  seemed  to  the  conspirators  on  the 
verge  of  success,  and  which  was  punished  by  the  sum- 
mary execution  of  thirty  or  forty  rebels  without  the 
news  of  it  getting  into  the  papers,  showed  that  Ger- 
many had  much  to  hope  for  and  Britain  much  to  fear 
from  the  unrest  of  these  heterogeneous  populations.  I 
had  a  vivid  reminder  of  all  this  at  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Mission,  where  I  found  over  sixteen  hun- 
dred scholars  in  attendance,  and  where  I  addressed 
five  hundred  of  them  at  their  morning  prayers.  One 
of  the  chief  difficulties  of  Christian  work  in  Singapore 
is  the  aggregation  and  mixture  of  races.  Seven  dif- 


28  A   TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

ferent  nationalities  are  represented  in  the  schools.  The 
Tamil,  the  Malay,  and  the  Chinese  are  the  most  numer- 
ous, and  of  these  the  Chinese  take  the  lead.  Fifty 
thousand  Chinese  immigrants  enter  the  port  of  Singa- 
pore every  year,  mainly  because  there  is  employment 
for  them  in  the  rubber  plantations  of  the  Straits  Set- 
tlements. The  congestion  of  population  in  China 
drives  them  southward  to  Singapore,  and  from  Singa- 
pore they  swarm  northward  to  Burma,  southward  to 
Java,  and  westward  to  India. 

This  mixing  up  of  the  many  different  nationalities 
makes  it  impossible  for  the  missions  in  Singapore  to 
teach  their  pupils  in  any  other  language  than  the 
English.  This  requisition  of  English  seems  to  some 
of  the  people  a  slur  upon  their  own  tongue,  and  a  sign 
of  British  ascendency.  They  are  jealous  of  the  En- 
glish, even  while  they  perceive  their  own  dependence 
upon  them.  Only  British  justice  and  watchfulness  can 
keep  in  check  the  disposition  to  revolt  on  the  part  of 
some  classes  with  which  the  government  has  to  deal, 
especially  when  these  classes  are  stirred  up  by  German 
spies  and  German  money.  Thus  far  all  seditious  at- 
tempts have  been  put  down,  and  the  traveler  learns  to 
bless  the  wisdom  of  British  administration,  and  to 
rest  secure  and  confident  under  the  folds  of  the  Union 
Jack. 

We  left  Singapore  for  Penang  with  some  regret,  for 
the  reason  that  large  steamers  must  be  exchanged  for 
small  steamers.  The  one  we  took  was  exceedingly 
good  and  modern.  Another  on  which  we  embarked 
somewhat  later  seemed  to  have  come  down  from  the 
days  of  Noah  and  the  ark.  But  British  steamers,  how- 


MANILA,    SINGAPORE,    AND    PENANG  2Q 

ever  old  and  small,  are  clean  and  safe.  You  "  get 
there  "all  the  same.  On  our  way  to  Rangoon  our  first 
stop  was  at  Port  Swetterham,  from  which  we  motored 
twenty-seven  miles  to  Kuala  Lumpur,  the  capital  of 
the  Federated  Malay  States — federated  under  the  Brit- 
ish Crown.  Here  is  a  city  of  Malays  and  Chinese, 
with  British  government  buildings,  Mohammedan 
mosques,  Buddhist  temples,  an  English  cathedral,  and 
a  Methodist  church.  Our  road  thither  led  us  through 
seemingly  endless  forests  of  rubber  trees  and  of  coco- 
nut palms.  The  profusion  of  tropical  vegetation  was 
both  novel  and  impressive.  These  Federated  Malay 
States  furnish  the  world  with  more  than  half  its  supply 
of  rubber,  and  many  English  and  American  investors 
are  growing  rich  from  the  soaring  of  prices  induced*  by 
the  war. 

Penang,  however,  furnished  us  with  our  greatest 
sensation.  It  was  a  Chinese  funeral.  In  this  cityof 
two  hundred  thousand  inhabitants,  a  millionaire  'Chi- 
nese banker  had  died.  He  was  a  Buddhist  as  well  as 
a  Confucianist,  -but  also  a  loyal  and  patriotic  sup- 
porter of  charitable  institutions,  and  of  the  British 
rule.  He  had  given  to-  the  British  government  a  num- 
ber of  aeroplanes  to  facilitate  its  military  operations, 
and  a  large  sum  of  money  for  its  war-loan.  When  he 
died,  the  customary  worship  of  ancestors,  which  is  a 
part  of  Chinese  religion,  as  well  as  gratitude  for  his 
past  gifts,  prompted  his  family  to  plan  a  sumptuous 
funeral.  It  is  said  to  have  cost  them  thirty  thousand 
dollars.  We  arrived  in  Penang  just  in  time  to  see  the 
show.  All  the  way  from  Singapore,  indeed,  we  were 
accompanied  on  our  steamer  by  a  fine  brass  band, 


30  A   TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

which  was  only  one  of  three  brass  bands  hired  to  fur- 
nish music  for  the  funeral  service. 

My  powers  of  description  fail,  when  I  attempt  to 
telfr  the  wonders  of  a  funeral  procession  fully  a  half 
mile  long.  It  was  headed  by  a  symbolic  float  of  wax- 
work figures,  in  which  a  colossal  horse,  prancing  on 
its  hind  legs,  seemed  just  about  to  soar  into  the  air. 
The  horse  was  held  in  by  four  angelic  forms  following 
and  holding  in  their  hands  scepters  of  royalty.  This 
apparition  reminded  me  of  the  horses  and  chariot  in 
which  Elijah  ascended  to  heaven,  and  it  seemed  to  in- 
dicate that  the  deceased  had  departed  with  all  the 
honors  heaven  and  earth  could  bestow.  A  band  of 
music  accompanying  the  float,  and  playing*  solemn  but 
not  mournful  strains,  gave  color  to  this  interpretation. 
A  retinue  of  sedan-chairs,  decorated  with  all  the  colors 
of  the  rainbow,  came  next  in  order.  These  sedan- 
chairs  were  empty  of  occupants,  and  contained  long 
strips  of  red  paper  on  which  were  written  the  names 
and  merits  of  the  millionaire's  ancestors,  to  be  read 
by  Buddhist  priests  at  the  grave.  The  chairs  were 
each  the  gift  of  some  relative  or  friend  of  the  de- 
parted. They  symbolized  the  welcome  given  him  by 
those  who  had  gone  before  him  to  the  better  land.  A 
second  band  of  music  was  followed  by  a  body-guard 
of  British  soldiers  in  khaki,  deputed  by  the  British 
governor  to  show  his  estimate  of  the  character  and 
loyalty  of  the  deceased. 

Then  came  the  hearse,  if  hearse  it  could  be  called. 
It  was  really  an  enormous  catafalque,  decorated  with 
gold  tinsel  and  costly  embroideries.  Peacocks  and 
birds  of  paradise  were  depicted  on  its  silken  hangings. 


MANILA,    SINGAPORE,    AND    PENAXG  3! 

A  dozen  men,  in  elaborate  robes  of  blue,  carried  this 
gaudy  structure  upon  their  shoulders,  while  other 
g-orgeously  attired  attendants  bore  great  ribbon-banners 
of  satin,  say  twenty  feet  long  by  four  feet  wide  and  of 
the  most  brilliant  colors,  inscribed  with  Chinese  char- 
acters and  making  known  the  virtues  of  the  departed. 
But  the  most  curious  part  of  the  procession,  was  yet  to 
come.  Preceded  by  the  third  band  of  music  were  the 
offerings  of  food  and  drinks  which  were  to  furnish 
sustenance  to  the  spirit  in  the  world  into  which  he 
had  now  entered.  There  were  six  roasted  sucking- 
pigs,  laid  in  order,  on  portable  tables,  with  baskets  of 
rice,  oranges,  bananas,  all  kinds  of  fruit  and  con- 
fectionery, and  cups  of  tea  and  wines.  These  were 
carried  to  the  cemetery,  to  be  presented  to  the  departed 
spirit  at  the  grave,  then  jealously  guarded  for  an  in- 
terval, finally  in  part  given  to  the  officiating  priests, 
and  in  part  consumed  at  a  feast  held  by  the  surviving 
members  of  the  family.  The  costlier  the  offerings,  the 
better  would  the  feast  be  enjoyed.  There  was  no  lack 
of  priests  in  this  ceremonial.  They  were  young  and 
clean-shaven,  and  looked  as  if  they  had  enlisted  for 
this  very  service.  I  thought  I  could  discern  a  sly 
twinkle  in  their  eyes,  as*  they  inspected -the  preparations 
for  the  feast,  before  the  march  began. 

The  mourners  must  not  be  forgotten.  Among  the 
Chinese,  wrhite,  and  not  black,  is  the  appointed  sign  of 
mourning.  The  four  wives  of  the  deceased  and  the 
members  of  his  family  were  accordingly  dressed  in 
the  coarsest  of  white  sackcloth,  with  ashes  sprinkled 
over  their  faces,  and  they  walked  behind  the  hearse, 
howling.  It  was  a  piteous  spectacle,  reminding  one 


32  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

of  the  professional  and  hired  wailers  in  Palestine, 
where  "  the  mourners  go  about  the  streets,"  uttering 
dismal  lamentations  which  can  be  bought  for  money. 
Far  be  it  from  me  to  suggest  that  such  was  the  lamen- 
tation which  we  heard  that  day,  for  there  is  reason  to 
believe  that  in  this  case  the  deceased  was  respected  and 
beloved. 

This  ceremonial  had  required  long  and  elaborate 
preparation.  The  death  indeed  occurred  last  July ;  the 
body  had  been  embalmed ;  it  had  lain  in  state  and  open 
to  public  inspection  for  four  whole  months ;  the  funeral 
did  not  take  place  until  November.  A  vast  amount  of 
detail  had  been  attended  to  and  provided  for.  Great 
packages  of  silken  umbrellas  had  been  stored  to  shield 
the  heads  of  guests  and  servants.  All  the  bearers  of 
sedan-chairs,  scores  in  number,  were  clad  in  silken  uni- 
forms; there  were  banners,  and  inscriptions,  and  lan- 
terns, galore.  Everything  was  done  to  impress  the 
Chinese  multitude  with  the  greatness  of  the  occasion. 
But  it  was  all  a  glorification  of  man  and  of  his  virtues. 
There  was  no  confession  of  sin,  nor  assurance  of 
pardon;  no  proclamation  of  a  divine  Redeemer;  no 
promise  of  life  and  immortality  in  Christ.  Heathen 
religions  are  man's  vain  effort  to  win  heaven  by  merits 
of  one's  own.  Only  Christianity  is  God's  revelation  of 
salvation  "«without  money  and  without  price,"  through 
the  sacrifice"  and  death  of  his'  only  Son.  This  is  the 
gospel  which  Confucianist  and  Buddhist,  Hindu  and 
Mohammedan,  need  to-day,  and  which,  thank  God,  our 
missionaries  are  giving  them. 


IV 
THREE  WEEKS  IN  BURMA 


THREE  WEEKS  IN  BURMA 


BURMA  is  the  land  of  pagodas.  These  places  of 
worship  are  the  most  striking  feature  of  every  land- 
scape. Their  bell-shaped  domes,  startlingly  white,  or 
so  covered  with  gold-leaf  as  to  shine  resplendent  in  the 
sunlight,  crown  many  a  hilltop  and  constitute  the  chief 
beauty  of  the  towns.  The  pagodas  are  usually  solid 
structures  of  brick,  with  facings  of  plaster,  and  they 
are  buildings  at  which,  rather  than  in  which,  wor- 
ship is  offered.  There  are  exceptions,  however.  The 
more  ancient  of  these  edifices,  like  the  Ananda  at 
Pagan,  have  inner  chambers  enshrining  gigantic  statues 
of  Buddha,  with  corridors  around  the  chambers,  quite 
comparable  to  the  aisles  of  English  or  French  cathe- 
drals. But  the  greatest  of  all  the  Burmese  pagodas, 
the  Shwe  Dagon  of  Rangoon,  is  a  solid  mass  of  brick, 
with  no  interior  cell,  yet  enormous  in  size,  erected  on 
a  broad  platform  one  hundred  and  sixty-six  feet  from 
the  ground,  towering  to  an  additional  height  of  two 
hundred  and  seventy  feet,  and  crowned  with  a  jewelled 
"  umbrella  "  at  the  total  elevation  of  four  hundred  and 
thirty-six  feet  above  the  teeming  streets  of  the  city 
below.  The  main  platform  from  which  the  pagoda 
proper  rises  is  an  immense  court  nine  hundred  feet 
long  by  six  hundred  and  eighty-five  feet  wide,  and 
crowded  with  minor  pagodas  and  shrines.  This  great 
esplanade  is  approached  from  the  four  points  of  the 

35 


36  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

compass  by  long  covered  arcades,  lined  with  shops  in 
which  offerings  of  every  description  can  be  bought. 
On  the  marble  floor  of  the  main  court  and  before  the 
minor  shrines  these  offerings  are  presented  by  scores 
of  worshipers  prostrating  themselves  before  statues  of 
Buddha  of  every  size.  And  yet  the  great  conical  or 
bell-shaped  dome  of  the  pagoda  is  its  chief  attraction, 
for  this  is  covered  with  gold-leaf  from  its  base  to 
its  summit,  and  its  shining  splendor  salutes  the  traveler 
from  miles  and  miles  away. 

The  religion  of  Burma  is  Buddhism.  Buddhism  is 
a  religion  of  "  merit,"  so  called,  and  the  surest  way 
to  acquire  "  merit  "  is  by  building  a  pagoda.  Repair- 
ing an  old  pagoda  will  not  answer  the  purpose ;  hence 
many  an  old  pagoda  goes  to  ruin,  side  by  side  with 
a  new  one  coated  with  whitewash  or  gold-leaf.  Curi- 
ously enough,  the  epoch  of  pagoda-building  was  almost 
coincident  with  that  of  cathedral-building  in  England 
and  France,  that  is,  from  A.  D.  1000  to  1200.  When 
one  sees  at  Pagan  an  area  along  the  Irrawaddy  River 
eight  miles  long  and  only  two  miles  wide,  with  nearly 
five  thousand  pagodas,  multitudes  of  them  small  and 
in  ruins,  but  many  still  standing  great  and  splendid 
in  their  proportions,  it  seems  impossible  to  doubt  that 
a  certain  genuine  religious  impulse,  however  blind  and 
mistaken,  led  to  their  erection.  There  they  stand,  mere 
relics  of  a  magnificent  past,  but  now  erect  in  the  midst 
of  desolation,  with  only  scattered  huts  about  them, 
where  once  there  must  have  been  a  dense  population, 
rich  and  lordly.  The  fate  of  these  towering  monu- 
ments of  idolatry  and  superstition,  now  for  the  most 
part  given  over  to  the  moles  and  the  bats,  shows  what 


THREE    WEEKS   IN    BURMA  37 

God  can  do  for  pagodas,  and  encourages  us  to  believe 
that  missionary  effort  will  be  mighty  through  God  to 
the  pulling  down  of  similar  more  modern  strongholds, 
together  with  all  the  high  things  that  exalt  themselves 
above  the  knowledge  of  his  truth. 

This  leads  me  to  speak  of  the  great  missionary  work 
that  is  now  honeycombing  and  undermining  the  foun- 
dations of  heathenism  in  this  pagoda-land.  We  came 
to  Burma  to  see  what  God  has  wrought.  The  labors 
and  sufferings  of  Adoniram  Judson  appealed  to  us  even 
in  our  childhood.  We  wished  to  see  how  the  mustard- 
seed  which  Judson  sowed  in  faith  has  grown  up  to  bear 
fruit.  So  we  went  to  Aungbinle,  where  for  twenty 
long  months  Judson  was  imprisoned  and  tortured. 
There  we  seemed  to  hear  God's  word  to  Moses :  "  Take 
off  thy  shoes  from  off  thy  feet,  for  the  place  where  thou 
standest  is  holy  ground."  We  were  reminded  also  of 
the  burning  bush,  which  was  ever  burning  but  not  con- 
sumed. Great  forward  movements  in  history  are  born 
in  suffering.  Through  death  to  life,  and  the  cross  be- 
fore the  crown — that  was  the  way  of  Christ,  and  it  will 
be  the  way  of  his  followers.  We  gathered,  a  small 
group  of  missionaries  and  visitors,  in  the  little  chapel 
that  has  been  built  upon  the  site  of  that  old  prison, 
and  we  prayed,  with  a  lot  of  dusky  villagers  and  chil- 
dren before  us,  that  God  would  yet  more  gloriously 
prosper  the  work  of  missions. 

We  had  every  advantage  in  our  investigations  in 
Burma.  Thirteen  of  my  former  pupils  are  now  mis- 
sionaries in  that  land.  For  many  years  they  have 
been  inviting  me  to  visit  them.  Nine  missionaries  met 
us  at  the  dock,  as  we  landed  from  Singapore  and 


38  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

Penang.  They  have  made  our  visit  delightful  by  their 
affectionate  and  boundless  hospitality.  Morning,  noon, 
and  night  have  been  full  of  sightseeing,  of  visiting 
mission  churches  and  schools,  of  "  chotas,"  or  little 
breakfasts,  of  "  tiffins  "  or  substantial  lunches,  or  after- 
noon-teas and  dinners  at  the  close  of  the  day.  The 
social  and  kindly  spirit  of  it  all  has  turned  what  other- 
wise would  have  been  wearisome  into  a  succession  of 
pleasant  experiences.  But  there  has  been  work,  and 
there  has  been  hard  thinking  also.  Making  three  ad- 
dresses a  day,  longer  or  shorter,  for  three  weeks  in 
succession,  is  no  sinecure.  I  am  sometimes  called  an 
"  octogeranium,"  but  I  have  not  been  permitted  to 
waste  my  sweetness  on  the  desert  air.  It  is  a  wonder 
to  me  that  I  have  survived  so  much  stress  and  rush- 
ing, but  I  am  compelled  to  say  that  good  appetite  and 
good  sleep  have  made  me  feel  in  better  health  and 
spirits  than  for  many  months  before. 

What  I  have  seen  has  gladdened  my  eyes  and 
warmed  my  heart.  Closer  contact  with  mission  work 
and  mission  workers  has  broadened  my  ideas,  given 
me  more  sympathy,  more  zeal,  and  more  hope.  The 
vastness  of  these  heathen  populations,  their  appalling 
needs,  together  with  their  infinite  possibilities,  have 
dawned  upon  me  as  never  before.  Burma  has  sixty 
millions  of  people.  It  is  a  most  fruitful  land,  never 
visited  by  the  famines  which  ravage  India  proper,  the 
land  west  of  the  Bay  of  Bengal.  It  enshrines  a  re- 
ligion which,  with  all  its  ignorance  and  superstition,  is 
more  free  from  gross  immorality  than  that  which  pre- 
vails on  the  other  side  of  the  bay.  Its  people  are  the 
most  heterogeneous  of  any  upon  earth.  Though  the 


THREE    WEEKS   IN    BURMA  39 

proud  Burman  native  is  still  the  dominant  power,  he 
has  now  to  compete  with  the  rising  intelligence  of  the 
Karens,  the  sturdiness  of  the  Chinese,  and  the  subtilty 
of  the  Hindus.  These  last  two  peoples  have  in  late 
years  in  large  numbers  migrated  hither.  Moham- 
medan mosques  are  rising  side  by  side  with  the  older 
Buddhist  pagodas.  The  Parsees  are  numerous  and 
influential,  and  theosophists  are  not  rare.  Rangoon 
is  probably  the  capital  city  of  Buddhism,  for  here  at 
any  rate  is  its  most  splendid  temple.  And  Rangoon 
is  a  sort  of  melting-pot  of  all  races.  Burmans  and 
Chinese  are  intermarrying,  and  are  producing  a  most 
vigorous  offspring.  Sikhs  and  Malays,  by  their  pecu- 
liar dress,  make  picturesque  the  streets.  I  know  of  no 
greater  mixture  of  races,  unless  it  is  in  the  city  of 
New  York,  where  we  have  more  Jews  than  there  are 
in  Jerusalem,  and  more  Italians  than  there  are  in 
Rome.  Here  in  Rangoon,  however,  all  these  peo- 
ples preserve  their  distinctive  characteristics  of  dress 
and  language,  so  that  racial  differences  are  more  ap- 
parent. 

The  Roman  Catholics  and  the  representatives  of  the 
Church  of  England  have  made  great  efforts  to  capture 
Burma.  They  have  established  noble  plants  in  the 
way  of  church  edifices,  hospitals,  and  schools.  The 
leper  asylum  of  the  Romanists  is  an  impressive  and 
worthy  provision  for  the  housing  and  treatment  of 
hundreds  thus  afflicted.  The  cathedral  and  school  of 
the  Anglican  Church  show  a  most  praiseworthy  esti- 
mate of  the  needs  of  this  great  province  of  the  British 
Empire,  and  breakfasting  with  Bishop  Fyffe,  the  metro- 
politan of  Rangoon,  gave  us  a  pleasing  impression  of 


4O  A   TOUR   OF    THE    MISSIONS 

his  kindly  Christian  spirit.  The  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  has  also  its  representative  here,  and  all  of  these 
evangelizing  agencies  are  supplemented  by  the  work  of 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.,  and  the  Salvation 
Army.  Yet  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  Baptists 
have  first  place  in  Burma,  both  in  church-membership 
and  in  education.  We  were  the  first  Christian  de- 
nomination upon  tine  ground ;  we  have  leavened  the 
country  with  our  influence ;  our  Mission  Press  has  fur- 
nished the  Bible  in  several  different  languages  to  the 
people  of  Burma;  our  schools  are  the  most  advanced 
in  grade  and  the  most  numerously  attended;  our 
churches  are  most  nearly  self-governing  and  self-sup- 
porting. We  have  great  reason  to  thank  God  and 
take  courage. 

All  this  is  the  growth  of  a  single  century.  It  was 
in  the  year  1813  that  the  Judsons  arrived  in  Burma, 
and  it  was  six  years  after  that  the  first  Burman  con- 
vert was  baptized.  In  1828  the  first  Karen  convert 
followed  Christ.  These  two  were  the  first-fruits  from 
the  two  leading  races  of  Burma.  Since  their  baptism 
there  has  sprung  up  a  flourishing  Christian  community 
which  embraces  representatives  both  of  the  indigenous 
races  of  Burma  and  of  the  immigrant  peoples  from 
India  proper,  from  China,  and  from  other  lands.  The 
Baptist  churches  in  Burma  to-day,  as  their  official 
representatives  inform  us,  enroll  members  gathered 
from  eighteen  different  nationalities,  besides  members 
of  the  Anglo-Indian  or  Eurasian  type.  "  The  entire 
Christian  community  in  Burma,  according  to  the  Gov- 
ernment Census  of  1911,  numbers  210,081;  of  which 
number,  122,265  are  Baptists,  while  60,088  are  Roman 


THREE    WEEKS    IN    BURMA  4! 

Catholics,  20,784  are  Anglicans,  1,675  are  Methodists, 
and  the  remainder  are  distributed  among  smaller  sects. 
That  one  Protestant  convert  of  1819  has  become  an 
army  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand.'' 

We  must  add  to  this  numerical  statement  the  facts 
that  a  corps  of  Christian  leaders  has  been  trained  and 
put  into  service;  that  native  Christians  have  found 
their  way  into  influential  positions  as  magistrates, 
township  officers,  teachers  of  schools,  inspectors  of 
police,  and  clerks  in  all  departments  of  the  govern- 
ment. Christian  men  are  prominent  in  business  and 
professional  circles,  as  traders,  contractors,  brokers, 
physicians,  lawyers;  and  the  Christian  character  is 
everywhere  recognized  and  honored.  A  church,  to  a 
large  degree  self-propagating,  has  been  planted  in 
Burma.  A  complete  system  of  missionary  education 
has  been  organized.  Modern  philanthropic  work  for 
the  relief  and  prevention  of  physical  ills  has  been 
transplanted  to  Burma.  The  Sunday  School,  the 
Christian  Endeavor  Society,  the  temperance  movement, 
are  common  methods  of  Karen  and  of  Burmese  church 
activity.  An  extensive  Christian  literature  has  been 
provided,  in  addition  to  the  printing  of  the  Bible  in 
all  the  main  languages  of  the  country.  In  fact,  a 
Home  Mission  Society,  for  the  evangelization  of  the 
natives  in  the  remoter  sections  of  the  country,  is  in 
active  operation.  When  we  remember  that  all  this  is 
the  product  of  a  hundred  years,  in  a  land  where  only 
a  little  while  ago  Christianity  was  a  persecuted  re- 
ligion, we  praise  God  for  the  result. 

I  must  mention  two  features  of  my  visit  which  claim 
special  attention,  I  refer  to  the  work  of  the  collegiate 


42  A    TOUR   OF    THE    MISSIONS 

and  other  schools,  and  to  the  hospitality  of  non-Chris- 
tian gentlemen.  We  have  inaugurated  in  Burma  a 
graded  system  of  education,  under  government  inspec- 
tion, and  leading  to  full  university  training.  Nothing 
in  my  travels  interested  me  more  than  to  see  hundreds 
of  boys  and  girls  of  Burmese  and  Karen  families,  in 
which  girls  have  hitherto  been  unable  to  read  or  write, 
singing  Christian  hymns  from  books  with  the  music 
and  words  before  them.  The  great  need  of  France,  as 
the  Emperor  Napoleon  once  said,  was  good  mothers. 
It  is  equally  true  of  Burma,  and  little  children  carry 
back  into  idolatrous  homes  their  love  for  Christ,  and 
their  juvenile  protest  against  heathenism.  I  addressed 
several  audiences  of  a  thousand  each,  where  the  full 
half  were  girls  and  women,  no  longer  secluded  and 
ignorant,  but  prepared  to  assume  responsibility  as  the 
mothers  and  trainers  of  a  new  race  of  Burmans.  In 
these  schools,  exclusive  of  the  seminaries  and  Bible 
schools,  there  are  enrolled  more  than  30,000  pupils, 
who  pay  annual  tuition  fees  of  more  than  $80,000. 
The  Morton  Lane  School  at  Maulmain,  the  Eurasian 
School  at  the  same  place,  the  Kemendine  School  in 
Rangoon,  the  Girls'  School  at  Mandalay,  have  each 
of  them  about  three  hundred  scholars,  and  they  are 
sending  out  influences  which  will  in  a  few  years  revo- 
lutionize the  civilization  and  the  religion  of  Burma. 
Other  schools  of  not  so  high  a  grade  are  doing  equally 
faithful  work.  Our  Baptist  College  at  Rangoon  is 
caring  for  the  higher  grades  of  education,  and  is  pre- 
paring hundreds  of  young  men  for  teaching  and  for 
government  service.  It  was  inspiring  to  address  a 
thousand  of  its  scholars,  under  the  direction  of  Prin- 


THREE   WEEKS    IN    BURMA  43 

cipal  David  Gilmore,  D.  D.,  formerly  of  Rochester. 
The  endowment  of  such  an  institution  in  this  heathen 
land  would  be  an  achievement  worthy  of  some  Chris- 
tian millionaire  in  America.  And  the  same  thing 
may  be  said  for  our  Burman  Theological  Seminary  at 
Insein  under  Dr.  John  McGuire,  and  our  Karen  Theo- 
logical Seminary  under  Dr.  W.  F.  Thomas. 

That  walls  of  partition  are  breaking  down  under 
the  influence  of  Christianity,  was  made  plain  to  us 
by  invitations  to  take  breakfast  with  a  noted  Parsee 
barrister,  and  to  take  afternoon-tea  with  a  wealthy 
Mohammedan  gentleman,  both  of  them  citizens  of 
Rangoon.  The  courtesy  and  intelligence  of  these 
hosts  of  ours  will  always  be  a  delightful  memory, 
while  their  novel  and  beautiful  homes  revealed  to  us 
what  art  and  nature  can  do  when  united  in  other  than 
Christian  surroundings.  Our  Parsee  barrister  had  ob- 
tained his  education  largely  in  England,  and  the  Mo- 
hammedan gentleman  had  enjoyed  intercourse  with  the 
best  of  our  American  missionaries.  The  Moslem 
friend  still  maintained  a  sort  of  seclusion  for  his  wife, 
and  only  the  ladies  of  our  party  visited  her  in  her 
private  apartments.  But  when  we  rose  to  depart,  he 
surprised  us  all  by  asking  that  we  offer  prayer,  and  he 
endorsed  the  prayer  that  was  offered  by  uttering  a 
hearty  "  Arnen."  As  we  stood  ready  to  go,  it  was 
easy  to  pray  for  a  blessing  upon  the  house  and  the 
family  which  we  were  leaving  behind  us.  Respect 
for  Christianity,  and  a  conviction  that  Christian  educa- 
tion is  the  great  need  of  the  future,  are  already  per- 
meating the  higher  classes  of  Burman  society. 

The   climax  of  our  stay  in   Burma   was   reached 


44  A   TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

when  Lord  Chelmsford,  the  viceroy  of  India,  visited 
Rangoon,  and  the  lieutenant  governor  invited  us  to 
an  afternoon-tea  in  his  honor.  The  pandal,  or  recep- 
tion pavilion,  erected  at  the  dock  where  the  viceroy 
landed  and  where  he  was  received  with  a  salute  of 
thirty-one  guns,  had  been  filled  that  morning  by  the 
elite  of  Burman  society,  fifteen  hundred  in  number, 
and  the  address  of  welcome  had  drawn  from  the  vice- 
roy a  fitting  response.  All  Rangoon  was  a  wonder  of 
decoration.  Arches  with  Saracenic  domes  built  by  the 
Moslems,  pagodalike  structures  built  by  the  Buddhists, 
Parsee  towers,  and  Hindu  temples,  appeared  at  many 
street-crossings,  and  one  long  avenue  was  lined  on 
either  side  with  elevated  rows  of  benches  upon  which 
were  seated  thousands  of  children  from  the  schools. 
The  viceroy  passed  in  triumphal  procession  between 
files  of  soldiery,  with  cavalry  for  a  body-guard  and 
a  dense  mass  of  humanity  thronging  the  sidewalks, 
looking  on  and  cheering.  At  night,  the  streets  and 
public  buildings  were  brilliantly  illuminated,  and  the 
great  pagodas  glittered  like  gems  from  top  to  bottom, 
encircled  with  rings  of  electric  lights. 

We  reached  the  Government  House,  the  scene  of 
the  afternoon  lawn-tea,  through  clouds  of  dust  raised 
by  four  lines  of  vehicles  that  struggled  for  precedence. 
At  last  we  emerged  in  the  grounds  before  the  stately 
edifice  where  the  lieutenant  governor  resides,  and  we 
were  presented  to  Lord  and  Lady  Chelmsford.  The 
viceroy  and  his  wife  were  simple  and  gracious  in  man- 
ner, and  they  made  us  feel  that  we  were  conferring 
as  well  as  receiving  honor.  A  group  of  forty  dancing- 
girls,  in  antique  Burmese  costumes,  were  giving  a  per- 


THREE    WEEKS   IN    BURMA  45 

formance  on  one  part  of  the  emerald  lawn,  while  on 
another  white-robed  servants  were  setting  before  the 
guests  all  manner  of  refreshments.  So,  amid  music 
and  feasting,  the  day  ended.  With  the  oncoming  dark- 
ness the  viceroy  and  his  lady  retired  to  their  apart- 
ments in  the  great  government  residence,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  whole  company  joined  in  singing  "  God 
Save  the  King!  "  It  was  a  striking  close  to  our  ex- 
periences in  Burma,  for  fully  half  of  the  guests  that 
day  were  Hindus  and  Mohammedans,  each  one  of 
them  arrayed  in  gorgeous  garments  and  decorated 
with  jewels.  It  left  in  our  minds  the  fixed  impression 
that  the  hold  of  Great  Britain  upon  Burma  and  indeed 
upon  all  India  is  largely  due  to  the  Christian  character 
of  British  rule,  and  that  missionary  work  of  evangel- 
ization and  of  education  is  to  be  given  large  credit  for 
India's  present  universal  loyalty  to  the  British  Crown. 
This  chapter  would  not  be  complete  without  special 
mention  of  the  dinner  of  our  Rochester  men.  We 
number  thirteen  of  them  in  Burma,  and  they  fill  very 
important  places  in  the  work  of  missions.  Two  are 
graduates  of  our  university,  but  not  of  our  seminary — 
Mr.  F.  D.  Phinney,  the  superintendent  of  our  Mission 
Press,  and  Dr.  David  Gilmore,  the  acting  principal  of 
our  Baptist  College.  With  the  wives  who  graced  the 
company,  seventeen  persons  sat  down  at  table.  Singiser 
presided;  McGuire  gave  us  welcome;  Dudley,  Coch- 
rane,  Rogers,  Hattersley,  Crawford,  added  spice  to  the 
occasion.  The  rewards  of  a  teacher  sometimes  come 
late,  but  they  are  very  sure.  When  I  saw  that  gather- 
ing of  missionary  workers,  and  remembered  Geis,  Cope, 
and  Streeter,  who  were  prevented  from  coming,  I  felt 


46  A   TOUR   OF   THE   MISSIONS 

that  my  labor  had  not  been  in  vain  in  the  Lord,  since 
Burma  is  being  transformed  by  Rochester. 

And  I  shall  never  forget  a  final  reception  given  us 
at  an  afternoon-tea  by  Dr.  D.  W.  A.  Smith,  the  presi- 
dent emeritus  of  the  Karen  Theological  Seminary  at 
Insein,  and  by  his  estimable  wife,  to  whom  I  had  had 
the  privilege  of  presenting  a  memorial  album,  on  be- 
half of  all  the  teachers  and  missionaries,  on  the  occa- 
sion of  her  seventy-sixth  birthday.  Doctor  Smith  and 
Mrs.  Smith  are  honored  and  beloved  by  all  who  know 
them.  Like  myself,  he  has  served  the  cause  of  theo- 
logical education  for  forty  years,  and  has  now  retired 
for  partial  rest.  I  am  glad  that  my  name  can  be  in 
any  way  connected  with  his,  for  I  am  sure  that  his 
works  will  follow  him. 


MANDALAY  AND  GAUHATI 


MANDALAY  AND  GAUHATI 


THESE  two  places  are  types  of  two  different  religions, 
the  Buddhist  and  the  Hindu.  Mandalay  in  Burma  is 
the  representative  of  Buddhism;  Gauhati  in  Assam  il- 
lustrates Hinduism.  The  hill  of  Mandalay  is  crowned 
by  a  pagoda  so  unique  and  splendid  that  it  draws 
pilgrims  from  every  part  of  Burma ;  the  hill  at  Gauhati 
is  similarly  attractive  in  Assam.  I  have  thought  that  a 
description  of  the  two,  and  of  the  worship  at  each  of 
them,  might  serve  to  fix  in  memory  the  differences  be- 
tween these  leading  religions  of  the  British  Empire 
in  India. 

Mandalay  was  the  terminus  of  our  third  excursion 
into  the  more  remote  parts  of  Burma.  From  Rangoon 
as  a  center  of  operations,  we  went  first  to  Bassein, 
where  our  Burman  and  our  Karen  schools  for  boys 
and  girls  are  beautifully  located.  Bassein  is  one  hun- 
dred and  ninety-two  miles  west  of  Rangoon.  Maul- 
main,  our  second  object  of  interest  and  visitation,  is 
one  hundred  and  seventy-one  miles  distant  from  Ran- 
goon on  the  south  and  east.  Here  our  great  mission- 
ary, Adoniram  Judson,  began  his  work,  and  here  are 
two  of  our  chief  schools  for  girls. 

Mandalay  is  farther  removed  from  Rangoon  than 

are  either  Bassein  or  Maulmain.    It  lies  three  hundred 

and  eighty-six  miles  to  the  north.     It  was  a  former 

capital  of  Burma.     It  contains  the  palace  of  King 

D  49 


5O  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

Thebaw,  the  foundations  of  which  are  reputed  to  have 
been  laid  upon  human  sacrifices,  and  from  which  the 
king  was  driven  after  a  long  and  fierce  British  assault. 
Ancient  tradition  decreed  that  only  sacred  edifices 
should  be  built  of  brick.  Thebaw's  palace  is  therefore 
of  wood,  though  it  is  gorgeous  with  carving  and  gilt. 
Surrounded  by  a  wide  and  deep  moat,  there  is  a  walled 
enclosure  of  more  than  a  mile  square,  whose  gateways 
are  picturesque  in  the  extreme,  and  which  to  all  but 
modern  cannon  would  be  an  impregnable  fortress. 

But  it  is  the  Hill  of  Mandalay  that  most  excites  the 
traveler's  wonder  and  admiration.  Upon  its  summit, 
commanding  a  far-reaching  view  of  the  winding  river 
and  of  endless  paddy-fields,  with  mountains  in  the  dis- 
tance, stands  a  pagoda  which  is  in  many  respects  more 
remarkable  than  the  great  Shwe  Dagon  pagoda  at 
Rangoon.  This  one  at  Mandalay  might  indeed  be 
called  four  separate  pagodas,  on  successive  heights,  and 
connected  with  one  another  by  a  straight  stairway  in 
part  hewn  out  of  the  solid  rock  and  in  part  built  of 
masonry.  The  stairway  consists  of  eight  hundred 
and  twenty-two  steps,  in  four  different  series,  eacli 
series  leading  to  a  broad  open  platform  on  which  rises 
a  separate  temple  with  a  colossal  image  of  Buddha 
in  its  center. 

From  below,  this  long  stairway,  with  its  railing  of 
brick  or  concrete  and  its  quartet  of  gilded  pagodas 
shining  in  the  sun,  is  a  picturesque  and  unique  object. 
The  crowning  pagoda  seems  almost  impossible  of  ac- 
cess. It  is  set  upon  such  a  height,  however,  for  the 
purpose  of  making  the  ascent  to  the  altar  difficult, 
and  so  of  adding  to  the  "  merit  "  of  its  worshipers. 


MANDALAY    AND    GAUHATI  51 

The  stairway,  even  when  cut  in  the  rock,  has  often 
forty  or  fifty  steps  so  narrow,  that  the  ascent  from 
platform  to  platform  is  actually  precipitous.  The  en- 
tire series  of  steps,  from  the  bottom  of  the  hill  to  the 
top,  is  roofed  over  with  sheets  of  corrugated  iron,  until 
the  whole  looks  like  a  covered  way  to  the  clouds. 
Going  up  seemed  an  exciting  adventure.  My  physician 
had  forbidden  my  climbing,  and  my  wife  declared  that 
she  could  not  attempt  the  walk.  The  problem  became 
serious. 

The  difficulty  was  removed  by  bringing  from  the 
missionary's  house  two  solid  teak-wood  armchairs,  to 
serve  us  after  the  sedan  fashion.  Long  poles  of  bam- 
boo were  lashed  underneath  them,  and,  after  we  had 
seated  ourselves,  eight  men,  four  for  each  chair,  lifted 
these  poles,  with  their  superimposed  American  pil- 
grims, upon  their  shoulders.  Then  began  a  triumphal 
march,  which  at  every  step  of  the  ascent  threatened 
to  become  a  funeral  march.  The  bearers  all  had  bare 
feet,  feet  twice  as  long  as  the  steps  were  broad,  so  that 
they  practically  went  upward  on  their  toes.  A  single 
misstep  would  have  caused  disaster — nothing  less  than 
an  avalanche  of  coolies,  chairs,  and  pilgrims.  But  my 
secretary  guarded  me,  the  missionary  guarded  my  wife, 
and  we  went  up  in  safety. 

Going  upward  some  two  hundred  steps,  we  rested 
upon  a  platform  with  a  pagoda  which  enshrined  the 
statue  of  a  Buddha  perhaps  twenty  feet  in  height  and 
covered  with  gold-leaf  from  top  to  toe.  Any  wor- 
shiper can  prove  his  faith  by  clapping  a  bit  of  gold- 
leaf  upon  the  statue.  The  result  is  that  the  hands 
and  feet  of  Buddha  are  thick  with  encrusted  gold.  He 


52  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

holds  out  his  hands  in  seeming  invitation.  Two  hun- 
dred feet  more  brought  us  to  a  second  platform  and  a 
second  pagoda  in  which  Buddha  also  appears;  but  now 
he  is  in  the  attitude  of  teaching.  Still  another  ascent, 
and  we  come  to  a  pagoda  in  which  Buddha  stands,  a 
towering  form  fifty  feet  in  height,  with  his  finger  ex- 
tended in  expectation  toward  the  plain.  And  a  final 
ascent  brings  us  to  a  colossal  Buddha,  now  reclining, 
as  if  his  work  were  done  and  he  were  entering  upon 
the  bliss  of  Nirvana.  At  this  last  stage  there  is  also 
a  series  of  waxwork  figures  which  symbolize  the  vanity 
of  life  and  of  human  desire.  Four  forms  represent, 
first,  the  babe  at  its  mother's  breast ;  secondly,  the  youth 
full  of  vigor;  then  the  older  man  haggard  with  care; 
and  finally,  the  corpse,  upon  whose  vitals  the  birds  of 
the  air  are  preying. 

From  the  summit  of  this  Mandalay  Hill,  another 
pagoda,  almost  as  famous,  is  to  be  seen.  I  mean  the 
Kuthodaw,  in  the  plain  below.  This  is  four  hundred 
and  fifty  pagodas  in  one,  all  but  one  of  them  little 
edifices,  each  with  a  small  sitting  statue  of  Buddha 
within  it.  An  even  more  remarkable  thing  is  that 
each  of  these  diminutive  pagodas  has  also  within  it 
a  portion  of  the  Buddhist  scriptures,  engraved  upon  a 
solid  block  of  stone,  and  all  of  these  together  make  up 
the  Tripitaka,  upon  which  the  Buddhist  pins  his  faith. 
In  the  center  of  the  grand  enclosure  stands  a  beautiful 
white  pagoda,  with  wreaths  of  gold  about  its  graceful 
spire.  The  long  rows  of  little  temples,  with  their  at- 
tempt to  preserve  the  holy  book  in  an  enduring  form, 
are  a  monument  to  the  faith  of  King  Thebaw's  uncle 
who  planned  it.  Few  people,  however,  read  the  writ- 


MANDALAY   AND   GAUHATI  53 

ing  upon  the  stones.  For  any  practical  result  it  is 
necessary  to  have  the  law  of  the  Lord  written  upon  the 
tables  of  the  heart. 

The  descent  from  Mandalay  Hill  was  even  more 
hazardous  than  the  ascent,  for  we  were  in  continual 
danger  of  slipping  from  our  chairs  and  knocking  over 
the  bearers.  We  were  profoundly  grateful  when  we 
reached  the  level  ground  again  and  found  that  we 
had  survived.  Our  experiences  with  Buddhism  were 
instructive.  The  saffron  robes  of  the  omnipresent 
priests  and  monks  undoubtedly  cover  much  laziness 
and  much  willingness  to  depend  for  a  living  upon 
others.  But  every  Burman  boy  expects  to  spend  some 
time,  though  it  may  be  only  a  week  or  a  month,  in  a 
monastery.  There  he  usually  learns  to  read,  though  his 
main  work  is  that  of  memorizing  certain  portions  of  the 
Buddhist  scriptures.  So  far  as  I  have  been  able  to 
learn,  there  are  no  positive  immoralities  connected  with 
Buddhistic  worship.  The  example  of  Buddha  has  in  it 
some  worthy  elements,  such  as  the  renunciation  of 
earthly  and  sensual  ambitions.  But  Buddhism,  for  all 
that,  is  a  pessimistic  religion.  It  denies  to  man  the 
existence  of  a  soul,  and  it  gives  him  no  hope  for  any- 
thing but  practical  extinction.  Buddha  no  longer  lives 
to  help  his  worshipers.  In  the  struggle  with  sin,  there 
is  no  atonement  for  the  transgressions  of  the  past,  and 
no  prospect  of  perfection  in  the  future.  Hence  the 
preaching  of  Christ,  crucified  for  our  sins  and  ever 
present  with  his  people,  is  to  the  Buddhist  a  revelation 
so  novel  and  so  entrancing,  that  it  captivates  and  trans- 
forms him.  Christianity  humbles  pride,  but  it  saves 
the  soul.  It  shows  the  impossibility  of  obtaining  sal- 


54  A   TOUR   OF    THE    MISSIONS 

vation  by  merit  of  our  own,  and  our  absolute  depen- 
dence upon  the  grace  of  God.  Christianity  awakens 
gratitude,  and  leads  to  unselfish  devotion.  It  turns  a 
Saul  into  a  Paul,  and  makes  him  a  missionary  and  a 
hero. 

Gauhati  is  the  present  capital  of  Assam,  as  Man- 
dalay  was  once  the  capital  of  Burma.  Like  Burma, 
Assam  is  overrun  by  Hindus,  who  seek  employment 
in  the  tea-plantations  and  in  every  other  species  of 
labor.  These  Hindus  have  brought  their  religion  with 
them,  and  in  Assam  the  animistic  religions  of  the  na- 
tives very  commonly  give  way  to  the  more  poetic  and 
philosophic  faith  of  the  Hindus.  In  Gauhati  the 
Hindus  have  established  a  temple  which  attracts  thou- 
sands of  pilgrim  worshipers  from  all  parts  of  Assam 
and  indeed  of  India,  as  the  pagoda  of  Mandalay  at- 
tracts pilgrims  from  all  parts  of  Burma.  The  Gauhati 
temple,  like  that  at  Mandalay,  is  set  upon  a  beautiful 
hill  not  far  from  the  town,  approached  only  by  a  long 
and  stony  climb,  though  with  many  a  rest-house  on 
the  way.  This  temple  and  its  worship  so  illustrate 
Hinduism,  that  a  slight  account  of  its  origin  and  be- 
liefs seems  to  be  necessary. 

The  god  Siva  had  a  goddess  for  a  wife.  Displeased 
with  her  unfaithfulness,  he  seized  her,  and  with  bet- 
as his  captive  he  flew  through  the  air,  and  as  he  flew, 
he  cut  her  in  pieces.  The  middle  portion  of  her  body 
fell  to  the  earth  on  this  hill,  and  consecrated  forever 
this  spot  near  Gauhati.  In  the  temple  and  grove  of 
this  hill  the  goddess  is  worshiped  by  such  rites  as  will 
please  one  of  low  and  licentious  tastes.  In  fact,  the 
rites  of  this  temple  are  said  to  be  the  most  obscene  of 


MANDALAY   AND   GAUHATI  55 

any  in  the  British  possessions.  There  are  reputed  to 
be  a  thousand  "  virgins,"  who  subsist  in  and  upon  the 
temple.  The  extent  to  which  they  are  virgins  may  be 
judged  by  the  number  of  fatherless  children  clinging  to 
their  robes  or  carried  about.  These  "  virgins/'  as 
is  well  known,  are  "  married  to  the  god  of  the  tem- 
ple " — which  may  mean  married  either  to  the  priests 
of  the  temple,  or  to  the  worshipers  of  the  temple.  I 
asked  a  missionary  whether  these  "  virgins,"  after  their 
term  of  service,  could  contract  an  ordinary  marriage. 
I  was  answered  that  the  girls  were  "  married  to  the 
temple  for  life."  One  of  these  unfortunate  women  led 
by  the  hand  a  beautiful  little  daughter.  On  being 
asked  who  the  father  was,  the  mother  replied :  "  How 
should  I  know?  I  am  a  temple-woman."  So  the 
gratification  of  illicit  passion  becomes  a  religious  act. 
The  residents  of  Gauhati  are  free  to  visit  the  temple, 
and  so,  alas!  are  the  eight  hundred  students  of  the 
English  college  only  two  miles  away.  Who  can  mea- 
sure the  corrupting  influence  of  this  temple  upon  the 
lives  of  the  people  over  a  wide  area  in  Assam? 

A  student  of  the  college,  who  was  also  a  priest  of 
the  temple,  met  one  of  our  party  on  his  visit.  This 
student-priest  was  a  young  man  of  more  than  ordinary 
intelligence.  He  endeavored  to  palliate  the  evil  of  the 
temple- worship,  and  to  clothe  its  acts  with  spiritual 
significance.  He  pointed  to  the  spot  where  goats  and 
buffaloes  were  offered  in  sacrifice,  and  he  claimed  that 
this  offering  was  made  in  expiation  of  sin.  Such  an 
explanation  of  Hindu  sacrifices  is  altogether  futile. 
The  sense  of  guilt  is  so  dull  in  Hinduism,  that  sin  is 
little  more  than  external  and  physical  impurity,  and 


56  A    TOUR   OF    THE    MISSIONS 

may  be  simply  failure  to  conform  to  a  prescribed  act 
of  ceremonial  worship.  The  true  meaning  of  sacrifice 
for  sin  has,  in  India,  been  derived  solely  from  Chris- 
tian preaching.  This  particular  student  had  many  an 
opportunity  to  hear  such  preaching,  and  the  knowledge 
of  atonement  which  he  tried  to  mix  with  his  Hindu 
theology  was  probably  gained  from  missionary  sources. 
It  was  an  illustration  of  the  incidental  and  indirect 
ways  in  which  Christian  missions  are  permeating  these 
Oriental  lands,  and  are  forcing  these  old  religions  to 
adopt  some  of  the  fundamental  ideas  of  Christianity. 
These  ideas  are  misunderstood  and  misstated,  so  that 
they  become  in  large  part  forms  of  error.  But  not- 
withstanding, they  may  pave  the  way  for  a  fuller 
knowledge  of  the  truth,  and  for  the  entrance  of  Christ 
into  the  heart  and  into  the  life. 


VI 


CALCUTTA,  DARJEELING,  AND 
BENARES 


CALCUTTA,  DARJEELING,  AND 
BENARES 


CALCUTTA  is  the  largest  city  of  India.  It  numbers 
more  than  a  million  inhabitants,  of  whom  600,000  are 
Hindus,  300,000  are  Mohammedans,  and  less  than 
100,000  are  Christians.  The  name  of  the  city  is  de- 
rived from  Kali,  the  goddess-wife  of  Siva,  the  De- 
stroyer; and  her  temple  is  one  of  the  most  filthy  and 
disgusting  in  all  India.  In  this  temple  I  saw  one  of 
its  many  priestesses  cutting  into  bits  the  flesh  and  en- 
trails of  a  goat,  which  had  been  offered  in  sacrifice,  in 
order  that  the  poorest  worshiper  might  have  for  his 
farthing  something  bloody  to  present  at  the  altar.  It 
was  the  altar  of  a  fierce,  cruel,  and  lustful  goddess, 
whose  black  and  ugly  image  could  be  dimly  seen  within 
the  shrine.  A  stalwart  priest  followed  me  with  hand 
outstretched  for  a  contribution.  It  was  a  novel  sen- 
sation to  hear  him  utter,  in  excellent  English  and  with 
seeming  reverence,  the  words,  "  the  great  goddess 
Kali,"  as  if  no  one  could  doubt  her  power.  It  reminded 
me  of  "  the  great  goddess  Diana,"  whom  all  Asia  and 
the  whole  world  once  worshiped,  but  whose  temple  is 
now  an  indistinguishable  heap  of  ruins.  The  worship 
of  a  goddess  so  vengeful  and  sensual  as  Kali  through- 
out India,  a  worship  both  of  lust  and  of  fear,  shows 
how  ineradicable  is  the  religious  instinct,  but  how  per- 

59 


6O  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

verted  it  may  become  when  existing  apart  from  divine 
revelation. 

There  is  another  temple  in  Calcutta  of  a  somewhat 
better  sort.  I  refer  to  the  temple  of  the  Jains,  that 
mongrel  sect  which  is  partly  a  reformed  Hinduism, 
and  partly  a  worship  of  Buddha.  Its  temple  is  a 
model  of  cleanliness  and  of  Oriental  art.  Its  decoration 
consists  largely  of  inlaid  glass  of  all  the  colors  of  the 
rainbow.  Walls,  ceilings,  and  columns  are  fairly  ablaze 
with  tinted  arabesques  that  reflect  every  ray  of  the  sun. 
Fountains  and  lawns  and  statues  mingle  their  attrac- 
tions. The  effect  is  one  of  splendor  and  beauty.  Jain- 
ism  is  conservative  Hinduism,  recurring  to  the  ances- 
tral worship  of  the  Vedas,  exaggerating  its  doctrine  of 
the  sanctity  of  animal  life,  repudiating  its  later  licen- 
tious developments,  and  taking  in  Buddha,  not  as  the 
supreme  and  sole  teacher  of  religion,  but  as  only  one  of 
its  great  saints  and  heroes. 

The  real  glory  of  Calcutta  is  its  relation  to  modern 
missions.  Here  is  the  chapel  in  which  William  Carey 
preached,  and  in  which  Adoniram  Judson  was  bap- 
tized. Its  spacious  construction  evinces  the  faith  and 
hope  of  its  founders.  But  it  is  in  Serampore,  which, 
though  fourteen  miles  away,  is  almost  a  suburb  of 
Calcutta,  that  Carey's  work  was  done.  How  wonder- 
ful that  work  was !  "  A  consecrated  cobbler,"  he  mas- 
tered the  languages  of  the  Orient,  and  gave  the  Bible 
to  India  in  several  of  its  tongues.  He  received  from 
the  British  Government  large  compensation  for  his 
services  as  interpreter  and  translator,  but  he  gave  back 
all  the  money  he  received,  in  order  to  support  schools 
and  missions.  The  noble  college  at  Serampore,  with  its 


CALCUTTA,  DARJEELING,  AND  BENARES     6 1 

hundreds  of  students,  is  his  best  memorial.  His  tomb 
in  the  cemetery  witnesses  to  his  humility  of  spirit.  It 
stands  at  one  corner  of  a  triangle,  with  the  tombs  of 
Marshman  and  of  Ward  at  the  two  remaining  corners, 
but  the  only  inscription  he  permitted  to  be  engraved 
upon  it  is  the  two  lines  of  the  hymn, 

A  wretched,  lost,  and  helpless  worm, 
On  thy  kind  arms  I  fall. 

So  he  left  his  testimony  to  the  need,  and  the  power, 
of  Him  who  will  ultimately  demolish  Hindu  temples 
and  enthrone  Christ  in  India. 

From  Calcutta  we  traveled  about  three  hundred  and 
seventy  miles  northward  to  Darjeeling.  We  wished 
to  see  the  Himalayas.  A  most  tortuous  narrow-gage 
railway  lifted  us  gradually  to  a  height  of  seven  thou- 
sand feet.  And  there  we  had  the  unusual  privilege 
of  seeing  the  sunrise  tipping  with  rosy  light  the  snowy 
peak  of  Kinchin jinga,  twenty-eight  thousand  feet 
high  and  forty-six  miles  away.  Mt.  Everest,  a  hun- 
dred miles  distant,  is  twenty-nine  thousand  feet  high, 
but  from  Darjeeling  is  invisible.  Kinchinjinga  is 
nearly  twice  as  high  as  Mont  Blanc,  and  its  glittering 
mass  is  a  spectacle  never  to  be  forgotten.  Curiously 
enough,  upon  the  summit  of  Observatory  Hill,  from 
which  we  gained  our  view,  the  immigrant  Tibetans 
had  erected  their  shrine,  and  long,  inscribed  paper  and 
muslin  streamers,  enclosing  a  large  quadrangle,  gave 
to  the  winds  their  prayers.  No  idol  was  to  be  seen. 
The  worship  seems  to  be  far  more  spiritual  than  that 
of  the  Hindus.  Nature  seems  to  have  taught  that 
secluded  race  of  Tibetans  a  more  primitive  religion 


62  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

than  modern  Hinduism.  It  is  a  religion  mixed  with 
Buddhism,  but  preserving  the  earlier  view  of  a  divinity 
in  natural  objects,  which  Hinduism  has  almost  wholly 
outgrown. 

Our  next  point  of  investigation  was  Benares,  "  the 
holy  city,"  the  Mecca  and  Jerusalem  of  the  Hindus. 
It  is  a  hotbed  of  heathen  enthusiasm  and  of  blinded 
devotion.  The  sacred  river  Ganges  flows  by,  with 
tier  upon  tier  of  temples  rising  from  its  steep  banks — 
such  a  congestion  of  religious  edifices  that  one  might 
almost  doubt  whether  they  had  left  room  for  any  but 
priests  to  live.  Every  day,  hundreds  of  pilgrims  troop 
through  its  streets  and  throng  these  temples,  present- 
ing their  flowers  and  their  offerings,  making  their 
sacrifices,  and  listening  submissively  to  the  instructions 
and  threatenings  of  the  priests.  Every  temple  has  its 
sacred  animals,  to  be  sacrificed  or  worshiped.  The 
"  Golden  Temple/'  so-named,  is  covered  with  gold- 
leaf  from  its  spire  to  its  base.  The  noisy  crowd  in  its 
corridors,  the  noisome  odors  of  its  sanctuaries,  the 
adjurations  of  its  priests  and  their  evident  aim  to 
turn  religion  into  financial  gain,  disgust  the  Chris- 
tian traveler,  while  they  show  him  how  deeply  rooted  in 
the  human  heart  is  this  towering  system  of  idolatry 
and  superstition. 

But  only  the  water-view  of  Benares  presents  Hin- 
duism in  its  most  characteristic  aspect.  It  is  the  sacred 
river  that  makes  sacred  the  town.  This  river  is 
regarded  as  itself  divine,  for  it  had  its  source  in  the 
mouth  of  Brahma.  Hence  it  is  endowed  with  life- 
giving  and  purifying  powers.  It  is  bordered  for  a  full 
mile  by  a  grand  succession  of  palaces  and  temples,  of 


CALCUTTA,  DARJEELING,  AND  BENARES     63 

bathing  ghats  and  of  burning  ghats.  Here  the 
Hindu,  often  after  long  pilgrimage,  washes  away  his 
defilement  and  prepares  himself  to  die.  When  death 
actually  comes,  his  relatives  wash  his  body  in  the 
holy  stream.  But  the  bathing  ghat  only  makes  ready 
for  the  burning  ghat.  These  burning  ghats  are  castle- 
like  edifices,  from  which  the  smoke  of  burning  flesh 
ascends  continually.  Cremation,  with  the  Hindu,  takes 
the  place  of  burial.  The  ashes  are  collected  and  are 
preserved  in  a  tomb.  To  die  in  Benares,  and  to  have 
a  temple  for  a  tomb,  is  the  surest  passport  to  happiness 
in  a  future  state,  since  the  transmigration  of  souls  into 
higher  or  lower  forms  is  an  essential  doctrine  of 
modern  Hinduism. 

A  wealthy  resident  of  Benares  courteously  offered 
us  the  use  of  his  observation-boat  to  view  the  scene 
upon  the  river  in  the  early  morning.  This  river-craft 
was  a  double-decker,  propelled  by  oars  from  the  lower 
deck.  From  the  upper  platform,  one  could  overlook 
the  ceremonial  washings  of  hundreds  of  pilgrims. 
Stalwart  men  plunged  themselves  three  times  into  the 
stream,  looked  toward  the  sun,  joined  their  hands, 
spoke  a  prayer,  rinsed  their  sacred  cord,  cleansed  their 
raiment,  and  then,  reclad,  went  to  the  priest  on  his 
platform,  to  be  smeared  with  ashes  on  the  forehead 
and  marked  with  a  little  colored  dot,  as  a  certificate 
that  they  had  correctly  performed  their  vow.  Brahma, 
Vishnu,  and  Siva,  had  each  his  worshipers  and  his 
priests,  to  give  the  appropriate  mark.  The  "  holy 
man  "  was  there,  either  upon  his  bed  of  spikes  or  in 
an  attitude  which  suggested  torture,  and  ready  to  re- 
ceive the  homage,  and  the  money  as  well,  of  his  be- 


64  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

nigh  ted  admirers.  Mothers  were  present,  immersing 
not  only  themselves  but  also  their  children.  All  the 
bathers  must  drink  of  the  muddy  and  fetid  water,  for 
purification  internal  is  as  needful  as  purification  ex- 
ternal. And  so,  hundreds  of  worshipers  every  day, 
and  on  special  feast-days  thousands,  drink  this  water 
of  the  "  sacred  Ganges/'  foul  with  the  stains  of  dis- 
ease and  reeking  with  the  sweat  of  the  dead.  It  is  no 
wonder  that  the  burning  ghats  have  no  lack  of  busi- 
ness, and  no  wonder  that  medical  experts  have  traced 
epidemics  of  cholera,  smallpox,  and  plague,  in  Western 
lands,  to  this  city  of  Benares,  where  "  Satan's  seat  is." 
The  throne  of  the  great  adversary,  however,  seems  to 
be  built  on  very  insufficient  foundations,  for  not  a  few 
of  the  temples  which  line  the  steep  banks  of  the  river 
have  toppled  over,  or  have  sunk  into  the  yielding  sand. 
Their  massive  fragments,  at  the  base  of  long  stairways 
of  stone,  show  how  hideous  is  the  ruin  of  any  system 
of  religion  which  is  not  founded  upon  Christ,  the  Rock. 


VII 

I 

LUCKNOW,  AGRA,  AND  DELHI 


LUCKNOW,  AGRA,  AND  DELHI 


AT  last  we  are  on  Mohammedan  ground — at  least 
on  ground  where  Mohammedanism  has  a  powerful, 
and  perhaps  a  controlling,  influence.  This  northwest 
part  of  India  was  the  scene  of  Moslem  conquest  in  the 
ninth  century.  Mohammedans  have  always  proudly 
contemned  idolatry,  and  they  have  often  been  icono- 
clasts, as  many  headless  Hindu  images  can  witness. 
Northwest  India  saw  the  rise  and  the  strength  of 
the  great  mutiny  of  half  a  century  ago,  but  it  was 
Moslem  rajas  and  faithful  Moslem  troops  who  helped 
to  put  it  down. 

Mohammedan  faith  in  the  unity  and  personality  of 
God  might  at  first  sight  seem  to  render  its  adherents 
more  accessible  than  are  Hindus  to  the  gospel  of 
Christ.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  the  very  ele- 
ments of  truth  in  their  belief  make  them  too  often 
stout  opponents  of  Christianity.  They  are  religious 
bigots,  as  the  Hindus  are  not.  The  Hindu  has  a 
pantheon  to  which  he  can,  with  some  show  of  con- 
sistency, invite  Christ.  The  Mohammedan  declares 
that  there  is  but  one  God,  and  that  Mohammed  is  his 
prophet.  So  he  denies  Christ's  claim  to  be  either  God 
or  Saviour. 

Lucknow  was  deeply  interesting,  for  here  was  ex- 
hibited one  of  the  most  heroic  and  thrilling  defenses 
ever  made  in  history.  More  than  two  hundred  women 


68  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

and  children  spent  three  months  of  agony  in  the  cellars 
of  the  British  residency,  while  husbands  and  fathers 
and  friends,  to  the  number  of  seventeen  hundred,  were 
exposed  to  the  besieging  force  and  the  murderous  fire 
of  fifty  thousand  mutineers.  The  headquarters  of  the 
defenders  were  riddled  with  shot  and  shell,  and  the 
residency  is  now  a  ruin.  But  only  one  shot  penetrated 
the  retreat  of  the  women  and  children  below,  and  of 
these  only  one  woman  lost  her  life.  Crowded  to- 
gether in  the  heat  of  the  summer,  tormented  by  flies, 
half  famished  for  lack  of  food,  these  brave  women 
held  out  themselves  and  encouraged  the  protecting 
garrison,  though  of  the  seventeen  hundred  men  only 
seven  hundred  at  the  end  of  the  siege  remained  alive. 
Sir  Henry  Lawrence  died  of  a  cannon-shot,  exhort- 
ing his  soldiers  to  the  last  man  to  die,  rather  than  to 
surrender.  We  were  glad  to  pay  reverence  to  his 
bravery,  by  a  visit  to  his  tomb.  Although  he  died,  the 
flag  of  England  flew  over  the  fortress,  in  spite  of  in- 
numerable efforts  of  the  enemy  to  bring  it  down. 
And  to-day,  in  memory  of  that  fact,  it  is  the  only 
flag  in  the  British  Empire  that  is  not  lowered  at  sun- 
set. The  joy  of  the  defenders  and  of  those  whom  they 
defended  may  be  imagined,  when  General  Havelock 
appeared  in  their  relief,  and  the  great  mutiny  was  sup- 
pressed. That  victory  settled  the  prestige  of  the  En- 
glish in  India.  All  classes  now  recognize  the  military 
strength  as  well  as  the  judicial  fairness  of  British 
rule.  Without  it,  India  would  be  a  country  of  war- 
ring races,  for  Mohammedan  and  Hindu  even  to-day 
live  in  slumbering  jealousy  of  each  other. 

This  latent  hostility,   I   am  happy  to   say,   shows 


LUCKNOW,    AGRA,    AND    DELHI  69 

some  signs  of  wearing  away.  The  desire  for  more  of 
home-rule  is  bringing  these  two  great  races  together 
in  conventions,  with  a  view  to  the  discovery  of  some 
method  of  cooperation  between  them.  Parliamentary 
government  in  China  and  Japan  has  had  its  effect  in 
India,  and  Britain  will  soon  be  compelled  to  admit  her 
Indian  populations  to  a  larger  share  in  municipal  and 
provincial  administration.  But  democracy  can  be  suc- 
cessful, only  when  conflicting  classes  find  some  basis 
for  harmony.  English  missionary  and  educational  in- 
stitutions are  doing  much  to  reconcile  Hindus  and 
Mohammedans  to  one  another,  and  this  may  pre- 
pare the  way,  not  simply  for  free  government,  but  also 
for  the  acceptance  by  both  parties  of  a  religion  in 
which  all  their  elements  of  truth  are  included,  while 
their  perversions  of  truth  are  sloughed  off. 

By  English  educational  and  missionary  institutions 
I  mean  much  more  than  Church  of  England  schools 
and  colleges.  In  Lucknow  we  visited  the  Isabella 
Thoburn  College,  under  American  Methodist  control, 
and  were  greatly  impressed  by  its  noble  equipment  in 
the  way  of  buildings  and  teachers.  Both  boys  and 
girls  have  here  the  opportunity  of  securing  an  educa- 
tion as  high  in  grade  as  the  sophomore  years  of  our 
American  colleges,  and  of  preparing  themselves  for  the 
advanced  work  of  a  great  Indian  university.  All  this 
is  under  Christian  influences,  and  has  its  fruit  in  many 
a  conversion  to  Christ.  Martiniere  College  is  also 
nobly  equipped  and  endowed,  but  it  is  solely  for  English 
boys,  who  are  generally  the  sons  of  British  officials 
in  India.  I  cannot  speak  too  highly  of  these  means  of 
education  now  furnished  by  all  our  great  denomina- 


7O  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

tions,  in  all  the  cities  of  India.  I  could  only  wish  that 
our  Baptist  people  at  home  might  see  how  far  Chris- 
tians of  other  names  have  often  surpassed  them  in 
their  gifts  and  preparations  for  the  future  of  a  coun- 
try whose  population  is  three  times  as  large  as  our 
own. 

At  Lucknow  we  had  the  rare  opportunity  of  see- 
ing "  the  mango  trick  "  performed  by  an  expert  jug- 
gler. He  first  showed  us  a  jar,  filled  with  innocent 
sand,  so  dry  that  it  fell  easily  through  his  fingers  as 
he  lifted  a  handful.  Then  he  presented  a  dry  mango 
seed,  which  he  planted  in  the  sand  and  watered.  The 
jar  was  placed  on  the  stone  pavement  of  the  hotel, 
not  ten  feet  away  from  our  eyes.  He  covered  the  jar 
with  a  little  tent  not  two  feet  in  diameter.  After  a 
few  passes  of  the  hand,  the  tent  was  lifted.  The 
seed  had  already  sprouted,  and  had  become  a  twig 
with  leaves.  Covering  the  plant  once  more,  he  called 
our  attention  to  a  cobra-charmer,  who  played  harm- 
lessly with  a  hooded  and  venomous  snake.  At  last 
he  threw  the  tent  wholly  aside,  and  there  stood  a  fully 
developed  little  mango  tree,  perhaps  two  feet  high. 
It  seemed  impossible  that  the  folds 'of  the  tent,  which 
had  been  shaken  out  at  the  beginning,  could  possibly 
have  held  it.  The  juggler's  method  was  simplicity  it- 
self. If  I  had  not  previously  seen  in  America  a 
necromancer  cut  his  wife's  head  off,  and  then  put  it 
on  again  so  slick  that  she  seemed  to  have  received  no 
injury,  I  might  have  begun  to  believe  that  this  Indian 
juggler  had  supernatural  powers. 

To  Lucknow  succeeded  Agra.  The  great  wonder 
and  prize  of  Agra  is,  of  course,  the  Taj  Mahal.  So 


LUCKNOW,    AGRA,    AND    DELHI  /I 

\ve  made  our  way  to  it  before  sunrise,  and  saw  its  ex- 
quisite columns  and  its  white  minarets  in  the  rosy 
light  of  the  earliest  morning;  then  again,  as  the  sun 
was  setting,  we  saw  its  last  rays  fall  upon  the  snow- 
white  dome.  As  one  looks  upon  the  Taj  from  the 
noble  gateway  through  which  one  enters  the  enclosing 
park,  he  sees  also  its  reflection  in  the  long  lines  of 
water  that  lie  between,  and  it  seems  a  miracle  of 
beauty.  But  when  you  reach  the  edifice  itself,  and 
perceive  that  its  simplicity  is  combined  with  lavish 
richness  of  decoration,  marble  and  precious  stones  be- 
ing so  woven  together  that  they  form  one  gorgeous 
and  splendid  whole,  you  can  only  admire  the  affection 
that  planned  this  memorial  to  a  beloved  wife,  and  the 
art  which  has  succeeded  in  constructing  an  edifice 
which,  after  six  centuries,  is  still  recognized  as  a 
wonder  of  the  world.  Yet  the  Moslem  emperor  who 
built  it  was  deposed  by  his  son,  and  then  imprisoned 
not  far  away,  the  chief  solace  and  recreation  granted 
him  being  this,  that  from  his  prison-roof  he  could  look 
out  upon  the  Taj  Mahal. 

The  Pearl  Mosque  and  the  Jasmine  Tower,  the 
Courts  of  Public  and  of  Private  Audience,  in  the 
palace  which  the  Moslem  emperor  once  occupied,  are 
monuments  of  architecture  so  remarkable  and  so  beau- 
tiful, that  no  description  of  mine  can  fairly  represent 
the  impression  which  they  made  upon  me.  They  are 
surrounded  and  protected  by  the  Fort,  an  enclosure 
half  a  mile  square,  whose  massive  wall  is  itself  a 
wonder.  In  the  days  when  these  structures  were  built, 
labor  was  cheap,  for  the  monarch  had  only  to  impress 
and  to  feed  his  laborers.  But  artistic  genius  is  always 


72  A   TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

rare.  The  Mohammedan  conquest  and  sovereignty 
of  the  past  produced  and  encouraged  a  flowering  out 
of  art,  comparable  to  that  of  the  days  of  cathedral- 
building  in  England,  and  of  the  time  of  Pericles  when 
sculpture  and  architecture  so  flourished  in  Greece.  In 
all  the  world  there  is  nothing  more  elaborate  or  beau- 
tiful than  the  perforated  marble  of  these  Oriental 
screens,  and  the  intricate  carving  of  these  Oriental 
pillars.  The  Alhambra  in  Spain  has  its  superiors  in 
India,  both  for  splendor  of  color  and  for  beauty  of 
pattern.  The  arabesques  of  these  Oriental  mosques 
exhibit  powers  of  invention  of  the  highest  order.  It 
has  been  well  said  that  their  architects  "  designed  like 
Titans,  and  finished  like  jewelers."  Both  the  throne 
of  the  Mogul  Emperor  Akbar  and  his  tomb  in  Agra 
are  proofs  that  even  the  grain  of  truth  in  Moham- 
medanism can  awaken  intelligence  and  enthusiasm  in 
those  who  receive  it,  and  that,  in  the  conflict  with  idol 
systems,  it  has  power  to  conquer  the  world. 

An  account  of  our  visit  to  Delhi  may  well  complete 
my  summary  of  Mohammedan  influences  in  India. 
Delhi  was  the  capital  of  India  long  before  Akbar 
reigned  and  the  lofty  tower  of  the  Kutab  Minar  was 
built.  But  Hindu  influence  has  combined  with  Mo- 
hammedan in  leading  the  British  to  restore  Delhi  to 
its  former  position  as  the  center  of  governmental  au- 
thority. Tradition  has  handed  down  a  prediction  that 
making  Delhi  its  capital  marked  the  end  of  each  power 
that  asserted  itself.  Hence  there  have  been  many 
Delhis,  as  there  have  been  many  ancient  Romes,  and 
this  present  Delhi  must  be  succeeded  by  a  new  Delhi 
which  British  authority  and  resources  will  build,  The 


LUCKNOW,    AGRA,    AND   DELHI  73 

new  Delhi  will  be  the  ninth,  as  the  present  Delhi  is 
the  eighth,  of  the  long  series.  Ruins  of  the  earlier 
Delhis  are  about  it  on  every  side.  Now.  at  last,  a 
great  tract  of  land  has  been  appropriated  for  the  new 
seat  of  government  which  will  rise  from  the  dust. 
Temporary  buildings  have  been  erected.  The  per- 
manent ones  will  soon  follow.  \Ye  may  be  sure  that 
they  will  be  splendid  and  suited  to  modern  tastes, 
while  they  still  preserve  the  characteristic  features  of 
Indian  architecture. 

By  making  this  new  Delhi  the  British  capital  of 
India,  it  is  sought  to  impress  the  Oriental  mind  with 
Britain's  claims  to  be  supreme,  while  at  the  same 
time  the  old  traditional  prediction  is  evaded.  Let  us 
hope  that  the  device  will  accomplish  its  purpose.  The 
prosperity  of  India  is  bound  up  with  the  recognition 
by  all  races  and  parties  of  England's  right  to  rule.  I 
would  not  justify  all  the  steps  by  which  Britain  has 
gained  her  power,  nor  would  I  ignore  certain  defects 
of  her  later  administration.  But  there  is  no  question  as 
to  the  general  justice  of  British  rule,  nor  as  to  the  fact 
that,  without  it,  India's  warring  races  and  religions 
would  now  be  the  ruin  of  all  peace  and  progress. 
When  we  remember  that  in  this  land  of  former  famines 
the  population  has  increased  since  1858  by  one  hun- 
dred millions;  that  forty-six  thousand  miles  of  canals 
have  been  dug  for  irrigation,  and  more  than  twenty-two 
million  acres  have  thereby  been  reclaimed;  that  trade 
has  increased  in  the  last  half-century  from  three  hun- 
dred millions  to  fourteen  hundred  millions;  that  the 
value  of  land  is  now  larger  by  fifteen  hundred  millions 
than  it  was  fifty  years  ago ;  that  there  are  now  thirty-two 


74  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

thousand  miles  of  railway  in  operation  and  seventy-six 
thousand  miles  of  telegraph ;  that  the  Indian  Post  Office 
now  handles  nine  hundred  millions  of  letters,  news- 
papers, and  other  matter  every  year ;  we  may  well  doubt 
whether  any  conquest  of  history  has  brought  about  so 
great  or  so  beneficent  results  as  have  followed  what  we 
must  regard  as  England's  commercial  absorption  of 
India. 

There  are  doubtless  seditious  and  anarchistic  ele- 
ments in  the  Indian  populations  which  need  to  be  kept 
under  and  subdued.  Let  us  remember  that  only  one- 
tenth  part  of  the  men,  and  only  one-hundredth  part  of 
the  women,  know  how  to  read.  There  is  a  vast  pro- 
letarian mass,  ignorant  and  inflammable,  ready  to 
follow  leaders  of  better  education,  but  less  principle, 
than  themselves.  This  mass  the  British  Government 
has  failed  to  educate,  so  that,  while  ninety  per  cent  of 
the  people  in  Japan  can  read,  in  India  only  one-tenth 
as  many  can  read.  One  of  the  greatest  mistakes  of 
English  administration  has  been  its  beginning  of  edu- 
cation at  the  top,  instead  of  at  the  bottom.  It  has 
established  universities,  but  not  elementary  schools. 
The  excuse,  of  course,  has  been,  that  differences  of 
caste  and  of  religion  have  made  it  impossible  to  put 
Hindu  children  and  Mohammedan  children,  Brahman 
children  and  Sudra  children,  together,  in  the  same 
schools.  And  yet,  in  the  universities,  pupils  of  all 
these  various  classes  sit  side  by  side,  and  some  plan, 
it  would  seem,  might  have  been  devised  to  apply  the 
same  rule,  so  as  to  secure  universal  and  compulsory 
elementary  education.  The  higher  education,  taken 
alone,  has  its  dangers;  it  is  sought  only  by  people  of 


LUCKXOXV,    AGRA,    AND    DELHI  75 

means  and  intelligence;  many  seek  it  from  no  love  of 
learning,  but  only  in  order  to  prepare  themselves  for 
government  offices.  But  there  are  not  enough  offices 
to  go  round.  The  disappointed  men  will  not  work 
with  their  hands ;  they  find  their  avocation  in  the  plot- 
ting of  sedition.  It  is  the  high-caste  educated  Brah- 
mans  who  have  edited  the  malcontent  periodicals,  and 
have  organized  the  revolutionary  conspiracies,  which 
have  of  late  bred  so  much  trouble  for  the  government 
in  India.  I  rejoice  therefore  in  the  rise  of  factories, 
and  in  the  new  emphasis  that  is  being  laid  on  indus- 
trial education.  These  will  do  much  to  develop  the 
resources  of  India.  But  what  is  most  needed  is  the 
spirit  of  peace  and  justice;  this  is  furnished  by  the 
gospel  of  Christ.  I  therefore  believe  that  the  gospel 
is  the  only  real  guaranty  to  India  of  its  political  as 
well  as  its  religious  welfare. 

The  Friday  prayer-service  in  the  great  mosque  of 
Delhi  was  a  striking  spectacle.  The  open  court  in 
front  of  the  mosque  is  four  hundred  and  fifty  feet 
square,  surrounded  by  a  cloister,  and  paved  with 
granite  inlaid  with  marble.  Three  or  four  thousand 
worshipers,  in  parallel  rows,  stretched  from  side  to 
side  of  the  great  enclosure.  At  the  summons  of  the 
mollah,  or  officiating  priest,  all  these  worshipers,  in 
perfect  unison,  prostrated  themselves  with  folded 
hands,  and  repeated  in  a  loud  voice,  "God  is  great." 
Each  devotee  had  previously  purified  himself,  by  cleans- 
ing his  mouth  and  hands  and  feet  in  the  open  tank  in 
the  center  of  the  great  esplanade.  Inasmuch  as  the 
Delhi  mosque  is  the  largest  and  most  splendid  east  of 
Cairo,  the  entire  spectacle  was  most  impressive. 


76  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

If  Turkey  had  not  joined  a  Christian  power  by 
her  alliance  with  Germany,  Mohammedans  throughout 
the  world  might  have  taken  Germany's  side  against 
the  Allies,  and  might  have  threatened  the  peace  of 
India.  That  danger  is  now  providentially  averted. 
The 'Moslem  rulers  have  held  fast  to  their  allegiance 
to  the  British  Crown.  This  city  of  Delhi,  with  the 
schools  of  the  Methodists,  the  Anglicans,  and  the 
English  Baptists,  is  permeated  with  religious  influences 
that  attract  its  native  populations,  and  these  influences 
are  continually  lessening  the  prospect  of  any  future 
rebellion  such  as  the  mutiny  of  fifty  years  ago. 


VIII 

JAIPUR,  MT.  ABU,  AND 
AHMEDABAD 


JAIPUR,  MT.  ABU,  AND 
AHMEDABAD 


INDIA,  as  is  well  known,  is  a  part  of  the  British 
Empire,  and  is  under  the  sway  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment. Yet,  for  administrative  purposes,  it  is  divided 
into  presidencies,  provinces,  and  native  states.  The 
presidencies  and  provinces  are  wholly  administered  by 
British  officials.  The  native  states  are  administered 
by  rajas  and  other  Indian  rulers,  with  the  presence  in 
each  capital  of  a  resident  officer  who  represents  the 
British  Government  and  who  is  accessible  for  consul- 
tation in  case  of  necessity.  The  relations  between  the 
rajas  and  the  residents  are  friendly,  and  only  the 
gravest  matters  are  referred  to  the  representative  of 
the  Crown.  All  other  affairs  are  cared  for  by  the 
native  ruler,  who  is  attended  by  a  distinguished  suite 
and  who  maintains  quite  a  royal  court.  This  species 
of  self-government  is  the  reward,  granted  by  the 
British  Government  after  the  mutiny  of  1857,  to  the 
rulers  of  the  native  states,  who  remained  faithful  to 
British  interests  and  assisted  in  the  suppression  of  the 
great  rebellion.  The  government  of  these  native  rulers 
is  in  general  worthy  of  praise.  Many  of  them  are 
progressive  men ;  they  have  traveled  abroad ;  they  have 
been  affected  by  Western  thought;  they  have  intro- 
duced modern  reforms  and  systems  of  education,  to 
the  great  benefit  of  their  subjects.  In  this  present 

79 


8O  A   TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

hour  of  crisis,  the  majority  of  them  have  been  loyal 
to  the  British  Government,  and  have  contributed  men 
and  means  for  the  cause  of  the  Allies.  It  was  interest- 
ing in  our  journey  across  India  to  traverse  several  of 
these  native  states;  and  it  was  difficult  to  observe  any 
difference  between  these  sections  and  the  portions  of 
the  empire  officered  solely  by  the  British.  We  saw 
no  British  soldiers,  but  only  native  troops.  There 
was  less  of  English  language  and  custom  prevalent. 
The  Hindu,  Mohammedan,  and  Jain  seemed  to  have 
things  very  much  to  themselves.  They,  after  all,  are 
the  real  India,  the  hereditary  India,  while  at  the  same 
time  they  are  feeling  the  influence  of  modern  rail- 
ways and  modern  commerce. 

Jaipur,  which  is  the  capital  of  a  native  state,  was 
especially  interesting.  It  has  been  called  "  The  Pink 
City,"  either  because  the  maharaja  owns  all  the  prop- 
erty on  the  business  streets  and  himself  sees  that  every 
building  is  painted  of  a  pink  color,  or  because  he  com- 
pels every  private  owner  to  conform  to  his  fixed  rules 
of  construction  and  decoration.  At  any  rate,  the 
wide  streets  of  Jaipur  are  laid  out  like  those  of  the 
homeland,  and  are  lined  with  pink  structures  of  only 
one  type  of  architecture  and  only  one  type  of  ornamen- 
tation. Even  Paris  can  present  no  better  illustration 
of  the  value  of  supervision  in  building.  There  are  no 
sky-scrapers.  There  are  long  rows  of  shops  and  resi- 
dences, with  arcades  in  front  of  them,  and  with  many 
variations  in  plan  and  decoration,  while  at  the  same 
time  one  tone  of  pink,  together  with  the  sky-line  and 
the  arcade-line,  is  preserved  without  important  change ; 
the  Oriental  type  of  building  is  preserved ;  and  there  is 


JAIPUR,    MT.    ABU,    AND    AHMEDABAD  8 1 

a  uniform  style  of  architecture  from  one  end  of  the 
street  to  the  other.  No  city  in  the  world  so  well  illus- 
trates Mrs.  Humphrey  Ward's  quotation  of  the  poet's 
words, 

A  rose-red  city,  half  as  old  as  Time. 

It  is  not  the  city  of  Jaipur,  however,  which  merits 
our  chief  attention,  though  the  maharaja's  town- 
palace  and  his  quaint  astronomical  observatory  are 
both  of  them  deeply  interesting.  This  observatory 
has  no  tower  and  no  telescope.  It  shows  what  can 
be  done  by  sun-dials  and  structures  almost  level  with 
the  ground  to  mark  the  movements  of  the  heavenly 
bodies,  and  thus  demonstrates  that  primitive  star- 
gazers  might  even  thus  early  acquire  a  very  consider- 
able knowledge  of  astronomy.  The  scientific  and 
literary  tastes  of  this  Oriental  monarch  are  also  in- 
dicated by  a  noble  public  library  of  his  own  founda- 
tion, which  contains  a  priceless  collection  of  books  and 
manuscripts  in  all  the  languages  of  the  East. 

But  it  is  Amber  that  constitutes  the  chief  attraction 
of  a  visit  to  Jaipur.  Amber  is  the  original  metropolis 
and  the  ancient  seat  of  government,  five  miles  distant 
from  the  present  Jaipur,  and  even  now  the  summer 
residence  of  the  maharaja,  though  the  old  city  which 
once  lay  around-  the  rocky  fortress  has  become  a  waste 
of  ruin.  The  palace  at  Amber  is  situated  on  a  hilltop 
several  hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the  plain,  and 
commanding  magnificent  views  of  the  surrounding 
country.  Next  to  the  sight  of  river  or  sea  from  a 
mountain  summit,  the  view  of  broad  and  level  plains 
stretching  far  away  is  most  beautiful,  and  such  a 


82  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

view  the  Indian  ruler  secured  when  he  built  his  sum- 
mer residence  upon  this  eminence. 

We  came  expecting  to  find  India  hot,  but  we  have 
found  the  northern  part  of  India  very  cool.  So  it  was 
reviving  and  refreshing  to  take  the  drive  from  Jaipur 
to  Amber  in  an  automobile,  over  a  noble  roadway 
with  slightly  ascending  grade  and  skirting  an  orig- 
inally splendid  palace,  once  in  the  center  of  an  island, 
but  now  in  the  bed  of  a  dried-up  lake.  When  we  left 
the  motor-car  at  the  final  lofty  hill,  the  deserted  city 
of  Amber  towered  above  us.  How  should  we  reach 
that  threatening  height?  Three  gorgeously  capari- 
soned elephants  solicited  our  patronage  for  the  ascent. 
But  before  making  that  ascent,  there  was  another 
ascent  to  make.  We  had  to  ascend  the  elephants. 
Ladders  were  brought  to  our  assistance,  and  up  the 
ladders  we  climbed  to  the  howdah,  or  square  seat  on 
the  top  of  the  bulky  beasts.  Each  elephant  had  to 
carry  two  passengers.  I,  on  one  side  of  the  animal 
that  bore  me,  had  my  weight  balanced  by  that  of  my 
courier,  who  rode  on  the  other  side.  Each  of  us  was 
compelled  to  let  his  legs  dangle  over  the  edge  of  the 
howdah.  All  went  well  until  the  elephant  came  to  the 
narrow  part  of  the  road.  There  he  evinced  a  vicious 
propensity  to  plant  his  feet  close  to  the  edge  of  the 
precipice.  There  was  indeed  a  railing  beneath  me,  but, 
clinging  as  I  was  somewhat  convulsively  to  my  slip- 
pery seat,  the  railing  was  invisible.  So  I  seemed  to 
myself  at  times  to  be  hanging  over  the  abyss.  If  I 
slipped  from  my  seat,  I  might  fall  four  hundred  feet. 
It  was  not  a  pleasing  situation.  But  the  elephant  knew 
his  business.  He  trod  the  path  in  perfect  confidence. 


JAIPUR,    MT.    ABU,    AND    AHMEDABAD  83 

And  so,  iii  royal  state,  though  in  mind  tremendously 
afloat,  we  made  the  long  and  'steep  climb,  until  we 
reached  the  palace  of  the  king.  The  maharaja,  how- 
ever, was  not  at  home  that  day  to  receive  us.  He  is  a 
Hindu  devotee,  and  at  the  time  of  our  visit  he  was 
making  a  pilgrimage  to  Benares,  the  sacred  city.  The 
first  thing  we  saw,  when  we  entered  the  court  of 
his  excellency,  was  the  spot  where  every  morning  a 
bullock  or  a  goat  is  sacrificed  as  an  offering  to  his 
heathen  god. 

Still,  "  every  prospect  pleases."  The  views  of  moun- 
tain and  plain  from  this  elevation  among  the  hills  are 
so  beautiful  that  one  can  only  admire  the  taste  of 
the  prince  who  made  this  his  chosen  dwelling-place. 
And  the  palace  itself  is  a  fascinating  study  in  art  and 
architecture.  Long  corridors  are  turned  into  cloisters 
arched  and  shaded  from  the  sun.  Tanks  of  water, 
with  fountains  playing  in  the  center,  provide  refresh- 
ing baths.  Halls  of  public  and  of  private  audience  are 
gorgeous  with  crimson  and  gold.  Temples  for  wor- 
ship are  added,  both  for  daily  devotion  and  for  great 
state  occasions.  In  short,  here  are  all  the  appurte- 
nances of  an  Oriental  court,  combined  with  private  lux- 
ury and  seclusion.  While  the  multitudes  must  toil  and 
suffer  in  the  plains  below,  the  maharaja  may  rest  and 
enjoy  himself  in  his  hilltop  palace.  I  would  not,  how- 
ever, imply  that  this  particular  monarch  is  not  in  many 
respects  a  large-minded  and  liberal  man.  The  many 
evidences  of  his  taste  and  public  spirit  in  Jaipur  rectify 
any  wrong  impressions  one  might  gain  from  a  visit  to 
Amber. 

The  next  dav  we  reached  a  station  called  Abu  Road, 


84  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

four  hundred  miles  to  the  south  of  Delhi,  and  about 
half-way  to  Bombay.'  True  to  its  name,  Abu  Road 
furnished  us  the  road  to  Abu  Mountain.  Again  we 
proceeded  by  motor-car,  that  great  annihilator  of  dis- 
tance in  a  foreign  land.  This  road,  in  its  gradual 
ascent,  is  a  noble  piece  of  engineering.  It  is  exceed- 
ingly tortuous,  for  it  follows  the  contour  of  the  moun- 
tain in  marvelously  skilful  curves.  All  the  way  for 
two  hours,  and  covering  an  ascent  of  four  thousand 
five  hundred  feet,  there  are  enchanting  views.  Trop- 
ical birds  and  trees  were  on  every  hand,  together 
with  cactus  of  many  varieties;  green  and  red  parrots 
screamed  through  the  air;  peacocks  spread  themselves 
in  the  sun ;  and  monkeys  scampered  across  our  path. 

One  of  the  spurs  of  Mt.  Abu  is  called  Dilwarra.  It 
is  the  seat  of  the  chief  temple  in  India  of  the  Jains,  that 
Hindu  sect  which  claims  to  have  preserved  the  an- 
cient religion  of  the  Vedas,  and  to  have  kept  it  true 
to  the  ancestral  faith.  As  I  have  before  remarked, 
the  Jains  aim  to  escape  the  possible  miseries  of  trans- 
migration, and  to  attain  the  bliss  of  Nirvana,  even  in 
the  present  life.  Jainism,  like  every  other  heathen  sys- 
tem, is  an  effort  to  earn  salvation  by  labors  and  sacri- 
fices of  one's  own.  Its  works  of  righteousness,  how- 
ever, are  often  uncalled-for  exaggerations  of  natural 
virtues,  such  as  counting  sacred  all  forms  of  animal 
and  vegetable  life.  The  most  devoted  of  the  sect  wear 
a  cloth  over  their  mouths,  lest  they  should  destroy  an 
insect  by  swallowing  it.  To  found  hospitals  for  the 
care  of  parrots  and  monkeys  is  one  of  the  most  ap- 
proved works  of  merit.  So  also  it  is  a  work  of  merit 
to  build  a  temple  or  to  endow  it.  Jain  temples  are 


JAIPUR,    MT.    ABU,    AND    AHMEDABAD  85 

full  of  images,  and  the  chief  object  of  worship  is 
honored  by  their  multiplication.  Buddha  is  recog- 
nized as  one  of  the  divine  incarnations,  and  in  some 
sense  Buddha  is  worshiped.  But  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  even  in  Jainism  Buddha  is  only  a  memory. 
He  has  entered  into  Nirvana,  and  has  passed  out  of 
conscious  existence.  Now  that  he  has  attained  that 
state  of  passivity,  he  has  no  eye  to  pity  and  no  arm 
to  save.  And  yet  in  this  Jain  temple  images  of  Buddha 
are  worshiped,  and  these  images  are  numbered  by  the 
hundreds. 

All  this  aberration  from  the  truth  does  not  prevent 
the  temple  from  being  almost  a  miracle  of  art.  There 
is  a  scrupulous  cleanliness  about  it  which  differences  it 
from  other  heathen  temples,  like  that  of  Kali.  In 
the  Jain  temples  there  are  no  animal  sacrifices,  for  all 
animal  life  is  sacred.  But  there  are  little  houses  for 
feeding  the  birds ;  larger  houses  for  feeding  the  beasts ; 
and  tombs  for  departed  saints  and  teachers.  And  let 
it  be  specially  borne  in  mind  that  in  all  the  world  there 
are  no  more  splendid  examples  of  arches,  domes,  and 
shrines,  decorated  with  elaborate  and  intricate  carv- 
ings, than  are  found  here  in  Dilwarra.  Its  arabesques 
of  perforated  white  marble  an  inch  and  a  half  thick 
are  like  lace-work  in  their  delicacy  and  beauty.  In- 
vention could  go  no  farther  in  devising  an  infinite 
variety  of  geometric  traceries.  We  in  the  West  have 
much  to  learn  from  the  artistic  genius  and  labor  of 
the  East. 

Another  day's  ride,  or  rather,  another  night's  ride, 
brought  us  to  a  city  of  a  very  different  sort  from 
Jaipur,  and  to  a  very  different  environment  from  that 


86  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

of  Mt.  Abu.  It  brought  us  to  the  busy-  metropolis 
of  Ahmedabad.  Here  is  also  a  city  in  a  state  under 
a  native  ruler,  but  a  city  so  prosperous  that  native  rule 
is  seen  to  be  by  no  means  slovenly  or  indolent.  On  the 
way  from  the  station  I  counted  eighteen  lofty  chim- 
neys belonging  to  manufacturing  establishments. 
There  are  eighty  factories  in  this  busy  center,  chiefly 
connected  with  the  cotton  industry.  In  this  industrial 
expansion  is  revealed  the  solution  of  many  of  India's 
financial  problems.  The  population  is  now  too  ex- 
clusively employed  in  agriculture,  and  its  manufactured 
articles  are  imported.  But  the  rains  are  so  uncertain 
that  the  farmer's  subsistence  is  precarious,  and  famines 
claim  thousands  of  victims.  Hence,  next  to  Chris- 
tianity, India  needs  industrial  development.  This  has 
been  the  view  of  recent  British  governors.  Better 
methods  of  irrigation  and  of  cultivation  have  been 
supplemented  by  the  introduction  of  new  instruments 
of  manufacture.  Both  English  and  American  machines 
now  do  much  of  the  work  that  was  formerly  done  by 
hand,  and  in  the  cities  there  is  growing  up  a  new 
manufacturing  population. 

Industrial  missions  are  a  great  blessing  to  India,  and 
our  religious  denominations  have  shown  their  practical 
sense  by  entering  upon  this  sort  of  work.  When  a 
native  becomes  a  convert  to  Christianity,  he  is  often 
thrown  out  of  caste  by  his  family,  and  out  of  labor 
by  his  employers.  He  must  support  himself;  he  must 
find  something  to  do.  But  he  is  friendless  and  help- 
less, unless  he  can  find  friendship  and  help  in  the  mis- 
sion where  he  has  been  converted.  It  is  necessary  to 
secure  employment  for.  him,  if  he  is  not  to  become  an 


JAIPUR,    MT.    ABU,    AND    AHMEDABAD  87 

encumbrance  to  the  mission  and  to  himself.  Hence 
I  welcome  all  gifts  for  industrial  missions  that  will 
teach  men  new  methods  of  obtaining  a  livelihood. 
India,  as  I  have  said,  has  a  vast  agricultural  popula- 
tion, now  scantily  subsisting  and  subject  to  occasional 
famines.  Multitudes  who  are  now  idle  might  be  use- 
fully employed.  The  change  now  going  on  in  our 
Southern  States  might  well  go  on  in  Southern  India, 
and  I  welcome  the  sight  of  the  factory  chimneys  of 
Ahmedabad. 

Ahmedabad  is  not  yet  converted  to  Christianity.  It 
is  a  celebrated  stronghold  of  Jainism,  and  here  is 
another  most  splendid  temple.  It  was  instructive  to 
see  the  little  houses  on  poles  for  the  care  of  birds, 
and  for  the  feeding  of  lazy  monkeys,  while  the  poor 
and  sick  of  human  kind  in  the  neighborhood  begged 
in  vain  for  help.  The  Jain  temples  are  noted  in  all 
India  for  their  beauty.  Carving  and  gilding  can 
go  no  farther  than  they  have  gone  in  the  decora- 
tion of  this  shrine  in  Ahmedabad.  But  the  troop  of 
monkeys  that  came  to  us  in  the  park  to  be  fed,  seemed 
to  us  quite  as  sensitive  to  human  needs  as  were  the 
holy  men  who  sat  about  that  temple  of  the  Jains,  for 
these  latter  devotees  use  God's  gifts  not  rationally, 
but  for  inferior  ends,  and  especially  for  their  own  in- 
terest and  comfort.  Ahmedabad  is  an  example,  not  of 
the  worst,  but  still  of  a  misplaced,  religious  zeal  that 
has  lost  its  bearings  because  it  has  lost  its  God. 


IX 

BOMBAY,  KEDGAON,  AND 
MADRAS 


BOMBAY,  KEDGAON,  AND 
MADRAS 


BOMBAY  is  a  great  city,  the  second,  in  population,  of 
the  British  Empire  in  India.  While  Calcutta  has  over 
a  million  people,  Bombay  comes  only  a  few  short  of 
that  number.  Its  commerce  is  immense;  its  public 
buildings  are  fashioned  after  European  models;  its 
streets  are  broad  and  finely  paved;  there  is  every  evi- 
dence of  wealth  and  cultivation.  But  Hindus  greatly 
outnumber  Mohammedans ;  Parsees  are  strong ;  Chris- 
tians are  active,  but  still  comparatively  few.  In 
thought  and  customs,  Bombay  is  still  essentially 
Oriental,  while  yet  profoundly  influenced  by  modern 
newspapers  and  modern  inventions.  It  was  a  memo- 
rable change  for  us  travelers  to  emerge  from  its  Taj 
Mahal  Palace  Hotel,  and  then  to  find  ourselves,  first 
in  its  Caves  of  Elephanta,  and  secondly,  in  its  Towers 
of  Silence. 

A  word  of  explanation  is  necessary  for  each  of 
these  notable  objects  of  interest.  Elephanta  is  a  little 
island  eight  miles  from  Bombay,  and  so  named  be- 
cause of  its  general  resemblance  in  shape  to  an  ele- 
phant. Elephanta  Island  forms  a  beautiful  object  as 
seen  from  the  deck  of  the  little  steamer  that  serves  for 
a  ferry,  and  the  views  from  the  summit  of  Elephanta 
Hill,  over  the  Bombay  Bay,  with  the  gleaming  towers 
of  the  green  city  in  the  distance,  are  very  charming. 


92  A   TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

The  island  is  a  great  resort,  however,  not  so  much  for 
the  views  therefrom,  as  because  it  is  the  seat  of  a 
rock-hewn  temple  excavated  centuries  ago  in  honor 
of  Siva,  the  Hindu  god,  whose  province  it  is  to  de- 
stroy. Brahma  is  the  Creator;  Vishnu,  the  Preserver; 
and  Siva,  the  Destroyer.  Siva  was  the  god  of  repro- 
duction, however,  as  well  as  the  god  who  destroys, 
and  his  worship  has  been  often  connected  with  obscene 
and  lascivious  rites. 

The  approach  to  Siva's  temple  is  through  a  lovely 
garden,  in  which  are  many  splendid  specimens  of  trop- 
ical vegetation.  At  last  there  appears  to  the  visitor, 
in  the  side  of  the  precipitous  hill,  a  massive  portico, 
with  four  immense  pillars,  all  hewn  out  of  the  solid 
rock.  Then  come  long  rows  of  similar  columns  lead- 
ing darkly  like  a  cathedral  nave  into  the  stony  hill, 
and  terminating  at  the  altar,  above  which  towers  the 
statue  of  Siva,  colossal  in  size,  with  Parvati,  his 
goddess  wife,  by  his  side,  and  all  the  emblems  of  his 
authority,  as  scepter  and  sword,  around  him.  The 
statue  seems  to  express  the  joy  of  sovereignty,  and, 
though  somewhat  mutilated,  it  is  noticeably  free  from 
the  immoral  suggestions  which  have  been  intimated 
in  many  descriptions  of  it.  Entrance  to  the  statue  is 
flanked  by  great  guardian  statues,  and  the  whole  chan- 
cel, so  to  speak,  is  enclosed  by  a  broad  and  lofty  cor- 
ridor, in  the  manner  of  cathedral  architecture.  From 
this  corridor  on  either  side,  many  nooks  in  the  rock 
have  been  excavated,  like  chantry  chapels,  each  with  its 
separate  statue  at  least  twenty  feet  in  height.  The  whole 
Hindu  pantheon  seems  to  be  represented  by  carved 
figures,  but  all  cluster  about  the  god  Siva.  The  really 


BOMBAY,    KEDGAON,    AND    MADRAS  93 

characteristic  and  indispensable  feature  of  these  caves 
is,  however,  still  to  be  mentioned.  It  is  the  image  of 
the  lingam,  or  phallus,  gigantic  in  size,  and  carven  out 
of  solid  stone,  in  the  innermost  shrine,  where  it  is  the 
object  of  hysterical  or  lustful  worship.  Every  year, 
on  an  appointed  feast-day,  three  or  four  thousand  peo- 
ple throng  to  this  shrine,  some  to  pray  for  offspring, 
others  to  seek  license  for  illicit  pleasure.  Elephanta 
has  become  in  this  way  the  symbol  and  propagator  of 
a  debasing  superstition.  Such  worship  is  only  a  deifi- 
cation of  the  lower  instincts  of  human  nature. 

Returning  to  Bombay,  it  was  natural  to  think  of 
the  Towers  of  Silence,  for  these  too  are  located  on  a 
lovely  eminence,  called  the  Malabar  Hill,  and  over- 
looking the  city  and  the  bay.  These  towers  are  en- 
closures in  which  the  Parsees,  a  most  intelligent, 
wealthy,  and  influential  sect,  dispose  of  the  bodies  of 
their  dead,  by  laying  the  forms  in  the  open  air  where 
they  can  be  devoured  by  vultures.  The  towers  them- 
selves are  at  least  half  a  dozen  in  number,  and  they 
vary  in  size.  But  the  style  of  their  construction  is 
uniform.  Inside  of  a  lofty  circular  wall  are  concen- 
tric beds  of  stone,  each  with  its  groove  in  which  a 
corpse  can  be  laid.  There  are  three  concentric  circles, 
the  outermost  for  men,  the  next  inner  for  women,  the 
innermost  for  children.  The  structure  has  no  roof, 
but  is  open  to  the  air.  Great  flocks  of  vultures  perch 
upon  the  top  of  the  outermost  enclosing  wall,  waiting 
in  silence  and  expectation  for  the  time  when  they  can 
descend  upon  their  prey.  Only  a  half-hour  elapses 
after  a  body  is  laid  on  its  stony  bed,  before  these 
ravenous  birds  have  torn  every  morsel  of  flesh  from 


94  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

its  bones.  The  skeleton  is  then  left  to  disintegrate  by 
the  action  of  the  elements,  until  the  rains  wash  the  re- 
maining dust  into  a  great  pit  at  the  center  of  the 
circles,  from  which  receptacle  the  refuse  is  conducted 
away  by  drains  during  the  rainy  season,  to  mingle  with 
the  surrounding  earth. 

This  is  the  Parsees'  "  ashes  to  ashes,  dust  to  dust." 
They  glory  in  this  method  of  disposing  of  their  dead, 
and  they  think  it  far  more  natural  and  impressive  than 
the  common  Hindu  method  of  cremation.  We  must 
grant  that  all  methods  of  disposing  of  the  dead  are 
painful.  But  faith  in  a  resurrection  of  the  body  is 
surely  most  in  consonance  with  our  time-honored  cus- 
tom of  laying  our  dead  away  in  their  kindred  earth, 
"  until  the  day  dawns,  and  the  shadows  flee  away." 

From  Bombay  to  the  town  of  Kedgaon  may  seem  to 
some  a  descent  from  great  to  small.  Not  so;  it  is 
rather  an  ascent  from  the  false  to  the  true,  from  the 
impure  to  the  pure,  from  the  illusory  to  the  real.  For 
Kedgaon  is  the  home,  and  center  of  the  work,  of  Pun- 
clita  Ramabai,  perhaps  the  most  learned,  and  certainly 
the  most  influential,  Christian  woman  in  India.  The 
very  name  pundita  is  given  only  to  those  of  high  intel- 
lectual attainments.  A  Hindu  of  the  highest,  that  is  the 
Brahman,  caste,  she  was  many  years  ago  converted 
to  Christianity,  and  she  has  devoted  all  her  powers 
to  the  education  and  uplifting  of  her  countrywomen. 
Her  father  was  a  great  Sanskrit  scholar.  He  was  one 
of  the  first  in  India  to  determine  that  his  daughter 
should  be  a  learned  woman.  Accordingly  she  was 
thoroughly  instructed.  She  knew  by  heart  the  sacred 
scriptures  of  her  people  long  before  she  became  a 


BOMBAY,    KEDGAON,    AND    MADRAS  95 

Christian.  She  could  repeat  from  memory  an  amount 
of  them  equal  to  that  of  our  whole  English  Bible. 
It  is  especially  the  improvement  of  the  condition  of 
women,  and  particularly  of  child-widows,  to  which  she 
has  devoted  her  attention.  The  condition  of  the  child- 
widow  in  India  is  most  pitiable.  She  is  held  re- 
sponsible for  the  death  of  her  husband,  no  matter  how 
young  she  may  be.  She  is  subjected  to  indignities. 
Her  hair  is  entirely  shaven  from  her  head.  Her  jewels 
are  taken  from  her.  Her  bright  clothing  is  taken  away, 
and  she  is  clad  in  the  coarsest  garments.  She  becomes 
the  slave  of  the  family ;  virtually  an  outcast ;  fre- 
quently a  prostitute.  She  can  never  remarry,  no  mat- 
ter how  young  she  may  be  at  the  beginning  of  her 
widowhood. 

It  was  to  ameliorate  this  condition  of  affairs  that 
Pundita  Ramabai  set  herself  many  years  ago.  She 
gathered  child-widows  under  her  protection,  sur- 
rounded them  with  Christian  influences,  and  gave 
them  a  Christian  education.  A  time  of  famine  threw 
upon  her  care  in  one  year  twenty-four  hundred  girls, 
who  depended  upon  her  alone  for  food  to  keep  them 
from  starving.  That  time  of  great  distress  is  now 
past,  but  when  we  remember  that  in  India  there  are 
estimated  to  be  as  many  as  two  millions  of  child- 
widows,  it  will  be  clear  that  the  need  of  a  refuge  for 
such  is  still  immensely  great.  Girls  of  the  highest 
caste  are  in  the  greatest  need,  for  among  the  lower 
classes  the  reproach  of  child-widowhood  is  not  so 
strongly  felt.  It  was  the  sorrows  of  girls  belonging 
to  her  own  Brahman  caste,  married  perhaps  at  the 
age  of  eight  or  ten  to  husbands  five  times  their  own 


96  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

age,  and  then  made  practically  outcasts  by  those  hus- 
bands' death,  that  most  touched  the  heart  of  Rama- 
bai.  It  is  wonderful  what  she  has  already  accom- 
plished. We  found  on  her  extensive  premises  a  great 
assembly-room  which  has  sheltered  at  one  time  twenty- 
six  hundred  auditors;  schools  of  every  grade  for 
Hindu  girls,  including  a  school  for  the  blind;  a  large 
and  commodious  hospital ;  a  printing  office  with  presses 
capable  of  turning  out  a  high  order  of  typography; 
an  asylum  for  lepers;  a  rescue-home  for  unfortunate 
girls ;  normal  classes  for  teachers  and  for  nurses ;  train- 
ing in  sewing,  embroidery,  and  weaving;  and  many 
another  sort  of  Christian  service,  including  the  work  of 
the  factory  and  the  farm.  Every  species  of  cooking 
on  the  premises,  and  all  the  care  of  the  rooms  and 
houses,  is  done  by  the  girls  themselves,  so  that  all  of 
them  are  taught  how  to  support  themselves  when  they 
leave  the  institution.  Three  hours  a  day  for  industrial 
\vork,  and  three  hours  a  day  for  schooling,  is  the 
uniform  rule.  One  can  imagine  the  far-reaching  in- 
fluence of  this  institution,  if  he  remembers  that  out 
of  the  twenty-four  hundred  scholars  who  were  received 
and  taught  in  that  dreadful  time  of  famine,  more  than* 
fifteen  hundred  were  child-widows  and  many  of  them 
of  the  highest  caste. 

Ramabai  is  a  great  scholar.  She  has  translated  and 
printed  the  whole  New  Testament,  in  the  colloquial 
Mahrati  dialect,  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor  women  in 
her  district.  She  is  now  engaged  upon  the  Psalms  and 
the  book  of  Genesis,  with  the  hope  of  finishing  the 
whole  Old  Testament.  Numberless  tracts  of  her  com- 
position have  gone  out  into  all  parts  of  India.  Her 


BOMBAY,    KEDGAON,    AND    MADRAS  97 

graduates  become  not  only  teachers,  but  also  evan- 
gelists. No  one  can  measure  the  extent  of  her  present 
influence,  as  showing  what  a  native  woman  in  India 
can  do,  in  the  way  of  breaking  down  caste,  overthrow- 
ing pernicious  customs,  and  demonstrating  to  a  be- 
nighted heathen  world  the  superior  claims  of  Christian 
truth.  We  left  Ramabai,  invoking  a  blessing  upon 
her  head  and  upon  Manorama,  her  daughter,  who  bids 
fair  to  prove  her  worthy  successor.  Ramabai,  by  her 
intellectual  gifts,  her  executive  ability,  and  above  all 
by  her  Christian  devotion,  deserves  honor  from  all 
lovers  of  Christ  and  his  gospel. 

As  we  neared  Madras,  the  third  largest  city  of 
India,  the  heat  began  to  oppress  us.  Up  to  this  time 
India  had  been  unexpectedly  and  refreshingly  cool,  at 
night  even  cold.  But  now  it  was  unpleasantly  warm. 
The  heat  reminded  us  of  the  conundrum :  "  Why  is 
India,  although  so  hot,  the  coldest  country  on  the 
globe?"  Answer:  "Because  the  hottest  thing  in  it 
is  chilly  "  ("  chili  "  is  the  peppery  sauce'  which  the 
natives  mix  with  other  spices  to  form  "curry"). 
We  have  learned  to  like  curry.  I  cannot  understand 
it ;  but  it  seems  as  if  the  hottest  countries  needed  the 
hottest  kinds  of  food.  At  any  rate  we  had  a  warm 
welcome  in  Madras,  thirteen  degrees  in  latitude  above 
the  equator.  We  were  fortunate  in  reaching  this  fine 
city  during  the  session  of  all  our  Baptist  missionaries 
in  the  South  India,  or  Telugu,  field — that  field  which 
a  few  years  ago  witnessed  the  baptism  of  2,222  con- 
verts in  one  day.  It  was  a  remarkable  illustration  of 
the  family  and  tribal  spirit  in  India.  We  Baptists  be- 
lieve in  individual  conversions,  and  we  seek  evidence, 
G 


98  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

in  every  case,  of  regeneration  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  But 
the  coherence  of  the  family  and  the  village  is  so  strong 
in  a  heathen  community,  that  the  lot  of  the  individual 
Christian  is  often  exceedingly  hard.  Occasionally 
there  is  apostasy.  The  resistance  of  an  important  man 
to  the  gospel  makes  the  persistence  of  his  dependents 
in  the  gospel-way  almost  impossible. 

In  some  quarters,  however,  whole  families  and 
whole  clans  have  been  blessedly  converted,  and  idolatry 
has  been  completely  eradicated.  In  other  cases  where 
mass  movements  have  taken  place,  certain  missionaries 
have  found  it  physically  impossible  to  sift  out  each 
doubtful  individual,  and  for  safety  have  demanded 
that  the  whole  family  or  clan  or  village  shall  give  up 
idolatry  before  any  single  individual  convert  has  been 
received  for  church-membership.  To  combine  strict 
faith  and  practice,  according  to  the  New  Testament 
standard,  with  a  proper  respect  for  local  customs  and 
traditions,  demands  great  wisdom  in  our  missionaries, 
and  makes  their  conferences'  very  practical  and  very 
necessary.  Certain  it  is  that  in  our  Baptist  missions 
abroad  greater  care»  is  exercised  in  receiving  members 
than  that  to  which*  we  are  accustomed  in  the  home- 
land. The  missionary  cannot  afford  to  have  false  dis- 
ciples in  the  flock,  if  he  knows  it,  for  "  one  sinner  de- 
stroyeth  much  good." 

New  Year's  Day  at  Madras  was  full  of  interest. 
Lady  Pentland,  wife  of  the  governor  of  the  Madras 
Presidency,  invited  us  to  a  New  Year's  garden-party. 
An  open-air  gathering  of  any  sort  on  the  first  day 
of  January  would  have  been  a  novelty  to  us,  but  this 
one  found  the  atmosphere  so  balmy  and  the  vegetation 


BOMBAY.    KEDGAOX,    AND    MADRAS  99 

so  green,  that  such  a  party  was  a  positive  delight. 
The  avenues  of  approach  to  the  governor's  residence 
were  lined  with  the  body-guard  of  his  excellency, 
stationed  in  twos  along  the  way,  and  clad  in  scarlet 
The  reception  took  place  under  a  wide-spreading  tree, 
on  a  spacious  lawn.  There  were  as  many  as  a  thou- 
sand guests.  It  was  a  gay  and  beautiful  scene.  Hindu 
and  Moslem,  Parsee  and  Christian,  all  met  together. 
It  was  an  exhibition  of  loyalty  to  the  British  Crown, 
as  well  as  a  proof  that  just  government  may  yet  weld 
all  India's  classes  and  castes  together.  Lord  Pentland 
spoke  to  us  most  pleasantly  of  certain  members  of  his 
family  whom  we  had  met  in  America,  and  Lady  Pent- 
land  showed  herself  to  be  a  charming  hostess. 

But  a  reception  still  more  charming  to  us  was 
the  reception  which  the  Rochester  men  gave  us  that 
same  New  Year's  night,  at  the  bungalow  of  Doctor 
Ferguson,  close  to  the  Day  Memorial  Chapel,  where 
the  sessions  of  the  conference  were  held.  At  least  ten 
of  our  graduates  sat  down  to  supper,  together  with 
their  wives.  Subsequently,  from  adjoining  rooms, 
other  members  of  the  conference  came  in  to  the  New 
Year's  reception,  which  is  an  annual  affair.  The 
United  States  consul  dropped  in,  with  a  few  other 
guests,  until  the  total  number  could  not  have  been 
far  from  eighty.  It  was  like  a  family  gathering. 
When  I  remembered  that  the  Telugu  Mission  was  once 
called  "  The  Lone-Star  Mission,"  and  was  in  danger 
of  being  given  up,  and  when  I  noted  that  it  now 
numbers  one  hundred  and  sixty-eight  churches  and  a 
church-membership  of  more  than  seventy  thousand, 
I  could  but  say,  "  What  hath  God  wrought !  " 


THE  TELUGU  MISSION 


THE  TELUGU  MISSION 


MADRAS  is  the  greatest  city  of  South  India,  and 
ranks  next  to  Calcutta  and  Bombay  in  thrift  and  im- 
portance. Tamil  and  Telugu  are  the  two  languages  of 
the  extensive  Madras  Presidency,  the  former  pre- 
vailing most  to  the  south,  the  latter  to  the  north. 
They  are  cognate  tongues,  and  both  are  derived  from 
the  Sanskrit.  Our  American  Congregationalists  have 
done  most  for  the  Tamils ;  we  Baptists  have  done  most 
for  the  Telugus.  The  Telugus  number  twenty-six 
millions.  Though  Madras  is  near  their  southern 
border,  it  is  the  best  starting-point  for  our  description. 

Next  to  our  mission  in  Burma,  the  Telugu  mis- 
sion has  been  most  blessed  by  God.  The  famine  of 
1876  was  followed  by  a  wonderful  revival,  in  which 
a  nation  seemed  to  be  born  in  a  day.  The  people  ac- 
cepted Christ  by  the  thousands,  and  twenty-two  hun- 
dred were  at  one  time  baptized.  Evangelization  has 
been  followed  by  education.  While  our  organized 
Telugu  churches  number  168,  and  our  church-members 
70,000,  we  have  819  schools  of  all  grades,  and  28,781 
pupils  under  instruction.  The  needs  of  the  body  have 
been  cared  for,  as  well  as  the  needs  of  the  soul,  for 
there  are  fourteen  hospitals  and  dispensaries,  minister- 
ing to  8,067  patients. 

In  such  a  mass  movement  as  that  among  the  Telugus, 
it  was  inevitable  that  the  organization  of  the  converts 

103 


IO4  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

into  distinct,  self-governing,  self-supporting,  and  self- 
propagating  churches  should  be  a  gradual  process  and 
should  require  time.  The  poverty  of  the  people  was 
an  obstacle  to  self-support.  But  Christian  teaching 
has  made  them  models  of  liberality,  and  it  was  touch- 
ing to  see  the  church-members  come  forward  at  the 
close  of  the  Sunday  morning  service  with  their  thank- 
offerings.  In  fact,  these  Telugu  churches,  in  the 
support  of  their  native  ministry,  are  in  large  measure 
independent  of  foreign  financial  aid.  It  is  certain  that, 
so  long  as  religion  is  an  exotic,  its  existence  will  be 
precarious.  The  plant  in  the  pot  needs,  for  per- 
manence, to  become  a  tree  rooted  in  the  soil.  Self- 
government  is  as  necessary  as  self-support,  and  self- 
propagation  is  equally  important,  if  the  Christianity 
of  the  native  is  ever  to  become  indigenous.  These 
aims  have  been  dominant  in  recent  years,  and  we  have 
been  permitted  to  witness  scenes  which  demonstrate 
the  power  of  God  to  make  multitudes  of  people,  of 
the  lowest  class,  intelligent,  liberal,  and  aggressive 
Christians. 

I  must  take  four  separate  stations  as  illustrations 
of  my  thesis.  Fortunately,  all  of  these  stations  are 
now  under  the  administration  of  Rochester  men,  whom 
I  am  proud  to  recognize  as  my  former  pupils.  But 
before  I  proceed  to  describe  our  experiences  with 
them,  I  must  to  some  extent  repeat  what  I  have  said 
in  my  last  letter  about  Madras  and  the  conference 
there  at  the  house  of  Doctor  Ferguson.  Because 
Madras  is  the  greatest  city  of  South  India,  it  is  the 
natural  source  of  supplies  and  the  easiest  place  of 
gathering  for  our  Telugu  missionaries,  even  though. 


THE    TELUGU    MISSION  IO5 

most  of  them  live  and  work  much  farther  to  the  north. 
The  principle  of  home  rule  requires  such  gathering, 
and  the  missionary  at  Madras,  without  seeking  it, 
naturally  becomes  a  sort  of  secretary  and  treasurer 
and  entertainer  of  the  whole  body  of  Telugu  workers. 
No  one  could  be  better  adapted  to  this  position  of 
responsibility  than  is  Doctor  Ferguson.  His  abound- 
ing hospitality  and  his  command  of  the  whole  situation 
make  him  sought  as  a  counselor  and  as  a  leader.  As 
the  older  men,  like  Clough  and  Downie,  pass  away, 
Doctor  Ferguson,  by  common  consent,  forges  to  the 
front.  The  present  prosperity  and  harmony  of  the 
Telugu  mission  are  largely  due  to  his  unassuming 
and  welcome  influence.  He  too  is  a  man  whose 
scholarship  and  character  reflect  honor  upon  the 
Rochester  Theological  Seminary,  where  he  sat  under 
my  instruction  twenty-two  years  ago. 

Coming  now  to  our  stations  north  of  Madras,  I  be- 
gin with  the  Theological  Seminary  at  Ramapatnam,  in 
charge  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Jacob  Heinrichs.  Its  students 
met  us  at  the  entrance  of  the  mission  compound,  and 
we  passed  under  an  arch  over  which  were  inscribed 
the  words,  "  Welcome  to  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Strong."  We 
had  garlands  of  flowers  thrown  about  our  necks,  and 
we  were  sprinkled  with  eau  de  Cologne.  In  the  large 
assembly-room  of  the  seminary,  we  listened  to  ad- 
dresses in  excellent  English  from  pupils  of  the  higher 
grades,  and  we  made  responses  in  the  same  language, 
which  were  interpreted  to  the  scholars  of  the  lower 
classes  by  the  pastor  of  the  village  church.  A  beau- 
tiful casket  of  carved  ivory  and  pearl  was  presented 
to  us,  containing  engrossed  copies  of  the  addresses 


1O6  A    TOUR    OF   THE    MISSIONS 

delivered  by  the  students.  There  was  singing  of 
hymns,  both  in  English  and  in  Telugu,  by  choir  and 
congregation.  The  beauty  of  it  all  was  its  spon- 
taneity and  naturalness,  for  the  pupils  themselves  had 
planned  and  executed  the  whole  program. 

Instruction  in  this  seminary  is  largely  biblical. 
Preachers  are  prepared  for  their  work  by  being 
grounded  in  the  life  of  Christ  and  the  life  of  Paul. 
The  text-books  have  been  written  by  Doctor  Heinrichs 
himself,  and  they  are  so  well  adapted  to  their  purpose 
that  they  have  been  extensively  used  by  seminaries  of 
other  denominations  than  the  Baptist.  A  native  Chris- 
tian literature  has  been  created  for  the  Telugus,  begin- 
ning with  the  Bible,  but  now  embracing  church  history, 
theology,  ethics,  and  something  of  modern  science. 
It  must  not  be  thought  that  the  teaching  is  exclusively 
religious.  Our  seminary,  and  all  our  schools  of  lower 
grade,  are  affiliated  with  the  government  system  of 
education,  and  in  all  their  lower  grades  are  subject 
to  government  inspection.  So  far  as  they  conform  to 
government  standards  of  thoroughness,  they  receive 
government  grants  of  financial  aid.  British  India  is 
impartial — aid  is  also  given  to  Hindu  and  to  Moham- 
medan schools.  But  Christian  schools  can  well  stand 
competition  with  these  other  systems,  for  the  methods 
of  our  Christian  schools  are  more  modern  and  more 
rational.  We  left  Ramapatnam,  convinced  that  India 
is  receiving  from  the  work  of  Doctor  Heinrichs  an 
inestimable  blessing.  Through  a  long  series  of  years 
he  has  been  training  preachers  and  teachers  for  this 
whole  Telugu  land,  and  much  fruit  is  appearing  in  a 
new  type  of  New  Testament  pastors  and  evangelists. 


THE    TELUGU    MISSION 

Ongole,  one  hundred  and  eighty-one  miles  north  of 
Madras,  was  the  scene  of  the  great  revival.  Here  too 
we  were  received  most  royally.  A  crowd  of  church- 
members  waited  for  us  at  the  railway  station  and 
tlocked  round  our  carriage  as  we  passed  to  the  mis- 
sion compound.  On  the  way,  a  company  of  Telugu 
athletes  entertained  us  at  intervals  by  their  feats  of 
ground  and  lofty  tumbling.  It  was  their  native  way 
of  welcoming  distinguished  guests.  Dr.  James  M. 
Baker  has  ably  succeeded  Dr.  J.  E.  Clough  in  the 
work  of  administering  and  organizing  this  important 
field.  The  Ongole  church  of  twelve  thousand  mem- 
bers, with  its  connected  schools,  is  enough  to  tax  the 
resources  of  the  ablest  man.  The  new  Clough  Memo- 
rial Hospital  had  its  beginning  while  we  were  in  On- 
gole, in  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone  of  a  gateway 
in  honor  of  Dr.  S.  F.  Smith,  who  wrote,  "  Shine  on. 
Lone  Star,"  as  well  as  "  My  Country,  'Tis  of  Thee." 
Mrs.  Strong,  with  a  silver  trowel,  made  its  founda- 
tion sure,  while  the  English  deputy  collector  for  the 
district  represented  the  government,  and  I  had  the 
privilege  of  making  an  address  to  a  great  mixed  audi- 
ence of  Hindus  and  Mohammedans  as  well  as  Chris- 
tians. 

Our  most  thrilling  experience  in  connection  with 
Ongole  I  am  yet  to  relate.  We  wished  to  see  the 
heart  of  India,  as  we  had  seen  the  heart  of  China  and 
the  heart  of  Burma,  We  could  do  this  only  by  taking 
part  in  one  of  Doctor  Baker's  country  tours.  Every 
year  he  takes  advantage  of  the  favorable  weather  cen- 
tering about  mid-winter,  to  spend  two  solid  months  in 
visiting  the  villages  which  throng  these  fertile  plains. 


IO8  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

With  tent  and  equipment  for  cooking-,  he  penetrates 
these  swarming  heathen  communities  and  carries  to 
them  the  gospel  of  Christ.  It  was  over  some  fearful 
roads  that  our  two-pony,  two-seated  buggy  enabled  us 
to  accompany  him.  Government  roads  are  one  thing  ; 
native  roads  are  quite  another.  Sudden  descents  to 
fordable  streams  and  sudden  ascents  to  the  opposite 
banks  are  succeeded  by  long  stretches  of  passage 
through  cultivated  fields,  where  there  appears  no  sign 
of  road  at  all.  At  last  we  reached  the  village  of 
Naletur.  Under  the  shadow  of  a  great  tree  we  found  at 
least  a  thousand  people  assembled,  sitting  on  the  ground 
bordered  by  a  broad  fringe  of  men  and  women  standing 
on  the  outside,  and  supplemented  by  a  score  of  half- 
naked  Zaccheus-like  hearers  perched  in  the  branches  of 
the  trees.  Mrs.  Baker,  awaiting  the  coming  of  her 
husband  and  his  guests,  had  been  holding  this  motley 
audience  for  two  hours  with  selections  from  the  gramo- 
phone, with  illustrated  Scripture  lessons  and  pictures 
from  the  Life  of  Christ,  and  by  calling  on  her  "  band  " 
for  "  music  "  with  a  big  drum,  castanets,  cymbals,  and 
various  other  instruments  of  Indian  manipulation.  Sal- 
vation Army  methods  have  great  influence  over  a 
childlike  people,  and  Mrs.  Baker  would  make,  in  case 
of  necessity,  a  first-class  Salvation  Army  lassie.  In 
fact,  no  act  of  missionary  humility  has  struck  our  eyes 
as  more  pathetic  and  true,  than  that  of  Mrs.  Baker, 
beating  a  big  drum  to  the  time  of  native  music,  in 
order  to  hold  an  audience  for  the  hearing  of  the  gospel. 
The  amphitheater  of  dusky  faces,  massed  together  and 
intently  listening,  with  Christians  on  one  side  and 
heathen  on  the  other,  seemed  like  a  reproduction  of 


THE   TELUGU    MISSION 

the  days  "  when  Jesus  was  here  among  men,"  and  a 
prophecy  of  the  great  final  Day  when  our  Lord,  the 
Judge,  will  separate  the  sheep  from  the  goats. 

That  evening  we  left  the  grove  and  entered  the  vil- 
lage with  fife  and  drum,  attracting  auditors,  and  held  a 
torchlight  meeting  in  the  market-place.  There  was 
preaching,  and  the  chanting,  in  rhythm  but  not  rhyme, 
of  a  versified  story  of  the  life  of  Christ.  The  mission- 
aries make  much  of  this  sort  of  Telugu  singing.  There 
was  the  same  crowd  of  auditors  that  had  met  us  in  the 
afternoon,  but  now  the  intermittent  light  of  the  torches 
made  the  scene  seem  to  be  flashing  rays  of  con- 
viction into  many  a  troubled  breast,  and  I  wished  that 
some  great  painter  could  immortalize  the  picture  upon 
canvas,  for  no  one  can  understand  missions  to  the 
heathen  without  picturing  to  himself  such  preaching. 

The  next  morning,  on  our  way  back  to  Ongole,  we 
visited  the  famous  spot  on  the  river  bank  at  Vellumpilly 
where,  in  1878,  2,222  believers  were  baptized.  On 
Sunday  we  attended  a  service  of  the  mission  church, 
where  a  native  pastor  officiated  and  at  least  fifteen  hun- 
dred persons  in  addition  to  the  missionaries  wrere 
present,  though  several  hundreds  of  scholars  were  ab- 
sent on  account  of  the  holiday  vacation.  And  finally, 
at  the  sunset  hour  on  that  memorable  Sabbath  Day, 
we  ascended  Prayer-meeting  Hill,  where  Doctor 
Jewett,  Mrs.  Jewett,  and  two  others  met  on  New 
Year's  Day  fifty  years  ago,  looked  out  over  the  great 
surrounding  plain,  and  prayed  the  Lord  to  give  them 
the  Telugus,  as  John  Knox  of  old  prayed,  "  Give  me 
Scotland,  or  I  die !  "  In  both  cases  prayer  was  an- 
swered, and  we  hope  the  more  recent  prayers  offered 


IIO  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

on  that  historic  spot  in  January,  1917,  will  also  be 
answered.  The  Telugus  are  gradually  being  won,  and 
we  ourselves  were  witnesses  to  that*  fact  when,  at  the 
village  of  Naletur,  we  beheld  the  baptism  of  eleven 
new  converts,  nine  stalwart  young  men  and  two  mar- 
ried women. 

Kavali  is  next  to  be  mentioned.  Here  is  a  work 
for  the  gradual  reformation  of  criminals  and  the  in- 
dustrial regeneration  of  India.  In  this  land  of  poverty 
and  famine,  our  converts,  when  turned  out  of  house 
and  home,  need  new  means  of  earning  a  livelihood. 
There  is  in  India  a  hereditary  criminal  class  which, 
like  the  thugs  of  a  former  generation,  make  it  a  sort 
of  religion  to  prey  upon  their  fellow  countrymen. 
The  British  Government  has  been  almost  powerless 
either  to  subdue  or  to  reform  such  offenders.  Some- 
thing more  than  mere  justice  is  required  in  their  treat- 
ment. The  Government  is  recognizing  the  value  of 
Christian  education  and  supervision,  and  has  recently 
put  large  tracts  of  territory  into  the  hands  of  the  Sal- 
vation Army,  the  Methodists,  and  the  Baptists,  with 
a  view  to  combining  compulsory  work  and  paternal  in- 
fluence in  the  reform  of  the  criminal  classes.  The 
Rev.  Samuel  D.  Bawclen,  at  Kavali,  has  charge  of  over 
eight  hundred  such  people,  and  is  teaching  them  agri- 
culture and  all  manner  of  trades.  Mr.  Bawden  is  one 
of  the  graduates  of  our  theological  seminary.  He  was 
for  several  years  chaplain  of  our  House  of  Refuge  at 
Rochester.  Physically  and  mentally  he  is  a  remark- 
able man,  an  athlete  and  almost  a  giant,  a  man  of 
science  and  a  man  of  faith.  It  needs  all  these  gifts 
to  dominate  and  lead  toward  Christ  eight  hundred 


THE    TELUGU    MISSION  III 

born  thieves.  I  know  of  no  more  self-sacrificing  and 
Christlike  work  than  that  which  brother  Bawden  is 
doing. 

The  success  of  it  proves  its  value.  There  are  no 
prison  walls,  though  leaving  the  community  is  followed 
by  pursuit  and  recommittal.  There  are  no  punishments 
except  deprivation  of  food-wages.  Each  member  of 
the  community  is  paid  in  food,  and  in  proportion  to 
the  extent  of  his  labor.  If  he  will  not  work,  neither 
can  he  eat.  Opportunities  for  education  are  given  to 
all.  There  is  even  a  church,  made  up  of  converted 
convicts.  The  faithful  among  these  Erukalas,  as  they 
are  called,  are  made  monitors  and  helpers  to  their 
weaker  fellows.  Squads  are  sent  out  from  five  to 
twenty  miles,  to  build  and  repair  the  roads,  with  only 
an  unarmed  comrade  for  overseer.  Nothing  is  given 
but  education  and  Christian  influence.  Everything  for 
the  physical  man  is  earned.  In  this  way  hundreds  of 
reformed  criminals  learn  to  gain  their  own  living 
and  to  lead  an  honest  life.  It  was  pathetic  to  receive 
the  welcome  of  these  humble  men,  and  to  see  their 
reverence  and  affection  for  their  "  big  father,"  Mr. 
Bawden.  We  heard  them  greet  him  as  "  our  savior.'' 
To  show  their  respect  for  Mr.  Bawden's  former  theo- 
logical instructor,  these  poor  men  subscribed  of  their 
scanty  means  and  hired  a  large  gasoline  street  lamp 
to  illuminate  the  evening  service. 

I  have  reserved  to  the  last  my  account  of  our  visit 
to  Nellore.  Nellore  is  last,  but  not  least,  for  this  was 
our  first  permanent  mission  station  in  South  India. 
Work  was  indeed  begun  at  Vizagapatam  in  1836,  but  in 
1837  it  was  moved  to  Madras,  and  in  1840  to  Nellore, 


112  A   TOUR   OF    THE    MISSIONS 

Madras  being  reopened  in  1878.  Nellore  is  one  hun- 
dred and  seven  miles  north  of  Madras,  on  the  main 
line  of  railway,  and  sixteen  miles  from  the  seacoast. 
In  the  Nellore  field  we  have  six  churches,  and  a  total 
of  nine  hundred  and  twenty-six  members.  It  is  our 
Baptist  schools  that  most  attract  our  attention.  The 
Coles-Ackerman  High  School,  in  charge  of  the  Rev. 
L.  C.  Smith,  has  more  than  eight  hundred  pupils,  and 
is  a  great  credit  to  our  denomination.  Bible  classes  and 
special  preaching  services  for  students  are  conducted 
with  enthusiasm  by  our  young  missionaries,  Smith  and 
Manley,  and  they  bring  good  results.  There  are  also 
in  Nellore  a  high  school  for  girls,  a  hospital  for  women, 
and  a  nurses'  training-school,  all  under  the  direction 
of  our  Woman's  Society.  In  these  schools,  Miss  Ten- 
cate  and  Miss  Carman  are  representatives  of  Rochester. 
The  general  work  of  the  mission  is  presided  over 
by  the  Rev.  Charles  Rutherford,  one  of  my  former 
pupils  and  graduates.  Mr.  Rutherford  is  the  young 
and  able  successor  of  Dr.  David  Downie,  a  much  older 
Rochester  man,  and  one  of  the  pioneers  and  leaders 
of  the  Telugu  Mission.  He  graduated  from  Rochester 
in  1872,  the  year  in  which  I  began  my  work  as  presi- 
dent of  the  seminary.  I  cannot  easily  express  my  grati- 
fication at  finding  him  in  South  India  to  welcome  me, 
and  to  accompany  me  during  a  large  part  of  my  stay 
on  this  field.  Few  men  have  so  noble  a  record. 
Though  he  retired  from  active  service  ten  years  ago, 
and  is  now  devoting  himself  to  writing  the  history  of 
the  mission,  he  is  still  vigorous  in  mind  and  heart, 
and  to  meet  him  is  to  come  in  contact  with  "  an  in- 
carnation " — an  incarnation  of  the  missionary  spirit. 


THE   TELUGU    MISSION  113 

He  has  seen  "  the  little  one  "  become  not  only  "  a 
thousand,"  but  well  nigh  a  hundred  thousand.  His 
faith  is  great,  that  this  whole  Telugu  Land  will  bow 
to  Christ's  scepter.  Long  may  he  live,  to  bless  India 
and  the  world ! 


XI 

THE  DRAVIDIAN  TEMPLES 


THE  DRAVIDIAN  TEMPLES 


THE  Dravidians  are  supposed  by  most  ethnologists 
to  have  been  the  aborigines  of  India.  When  they 
were  subdued  by  the  Aryans  from  the  north,  they 
were  crowded  southward  and  were  compelled  to  serve 
their  conquerors.  This  subjugation  was  the  origin 
•of  caste;  the  weaker  became  hewers  of  wood  and 
drawers  of  water  for  the  stronger.  The  Brahman 
would  have  no  social  intercourse  with  the  Sudra,  and 
thought  even  his  touch  a  profanation.  For  the  Brah- 
man represented  Brahma,  was  in  fact  Brahma  incar- 
nate, while  the  Sudra  was  a  manifestation  of  deity 
in  inferior  clay.  Yet  the  Brahman  needed  the  Sudra, 
and  had  to  propitiate  hinr  in  order  to  use  him.  So  the 
Aryan  absorbed  into  his  own  system  some  of  the 
Dravidian  gods,  and  usually  did  so  by  marrying  to 
Dravidian  female  divinities  male  deities  of  his  own. 
Siva,  the  Aryan  god,  for  example,  took  for  his  wife 
the  Dravidian  goddess  Kali.  In  many  ways  like  this, 
the  Aryan  and  the  Dravidian  united  to  form  the  Hindu. 
The  Hindu  religion  is  a  composite — a  corruption  of 
the  nature-worship  of  the  earlier  Vedas  by  its  union 
with  the  more  cruel  and  debasing  features  of  the 
Dravidian  idolatry.  The  renowned  temples  of  South- 
ern India  best  represent  this  mongrel  form  of  Hindu- 
ism, and  show  Hinduism  in  its  most  corrupt  develop- 
ment under  Dravidian  influences. 

117 


Il8  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

The  massiveness  and  vastness  of  these  temples 
demonstrate  the  power  of  the  religious  instinct  in  man, 
even  when  that  instinct  is  most  perverted.  With  all 
their  grossness  and  crudity,  these  shrines  reveal  a 
wealth  of  imagination  and  an  artistic  inventiveness, 
which  furnish  object-lessons  to  the  most  cultivated 
Occidental  mind.  We  wonder  what  the  East  could 
really  have  accomplished,  if  its  native  gifts  had  been 
under  the  control  of  Christian  truth.  Unfortunately, 
those  gifts  were  commonly  under  the  control  of  the 
baser  instincts.  Paul's  philosophy  of  heathenism  is 
far  more  correct  than  that  of  many  a  modern  writer 
on  comparative  religion.  Only  an  ancestral  sin  can 
explain  man's  universal  ignorance  and  depravity.  Be- 
cause he  would  not  retain  God  in  his  knowledge,  he 
was  given  up  to  the  dominion  of  vile  affections,  to 
show  him  his  need  of  a  divine  redemption. 

Tanjore  and  Madura  are  the  seats  of  the  Dravidian 
temples  which  we  visited.  Tanjore  is  two  hundred 
miles  south  of  Madras,  and  fifty  miles  from  the  Bay  of 
Bengal.  It  is  in  the  Presidency  of  Madras,  but  Euro- 
pean influences  have  not  greatly  changed  its  prevail- 
ingly native  aspect.  The  half-naked  coolies,  and  the 
children  clothed  only  in  sunshine,  show  how  inveterate 
are  custom  and  poverty.  The  great  Tanjore  temple 
is  the  center  of  worship  for  a  hundred  miles  round. 
It  is  built  on  a  stupendous  scale.  It  consists  of  a  series 
of  courts,  in  the  midst  of  which  are  two  tremendous 
towers  or  gopuras,  as  the  technical  term  should 
be.  Its  principal  tower  is  pyramidal  in  form,  is  two 
hundred  feet  in  height,  is  covered  with  row  after  row 
of  colossal  carvings  of  gods  and  goddesses,  and  is  sur- 


THE   DRAVIDIAN    TEMPLES  119 

mounted  by  an  immense  dome-shaped  and  gilded  top 
of  solid  stone,  said  to  have  been  brought  to  its  place 
upon  an  inclined  plane  from  the  quarry  four  miles 
away.  The  gateway  leading  to  the  temple  is  itself  an 
enormous  structure.  It  opens  upon  a  court  eight  hun- 
dred feet  long  by  four  hundred  feet  wide,  the  walls 
of  which  enclose  an  endless  succession  of  little  chapels, 
each  one  of  which  has  at  its  back  a  rude  picture  of 
some  incarnation  of  Vishnu  or  Krishna,  and  in  front 
of  each  picture  there  stands  erect  an  image  in  stone  of 
the  lingam  or  phallus. 

A  great  platform,  in  the  center  of  the  court,  houses, 
beneath  a  gorgeous  canopy,  an  immense  black  granite 
image  of  a  bull,  the  favorite  animal  of  Siva,  carved 
out  of  a  single  block  sixteen  feet  long  and  twelve  feet 
high,  and  kept  perpetually  shining  by  anointings  of 
holy  oil.  The  imagination  of  the  worshiper  is  thus 
excited  by  successive  statues  and  pictures,  until  at  last 
he  reaches  the  tremendous  pyramidal  tower,  or  gopu- 
ra,  which  portrays  and  symbolizes  the  power  of  the 
heathen  god  to  destroy  and  to  recreate.  That  mas- 
sive tower,  superimposed  above  the  idol  and  forming 
its  magnificent  abiding-place,  has  no  superior  in  all 
India  for  grandeur.  Mr.  Fergusson,  the  distinguished 
writer  on  architecture,  calls  it  the  most  beautiful  and 
effective  of  all  the  towers  found  in  Dravidian  temples. 
The  sculptures  in  the  long  and  dimly  lighted  corridors 
at  the  base  of  the  temple,  and  in  the  first  tiers  of  the 
tower,  are  wonderfully  realistic  representations  of  a 
sensual  and  ferocious  deity.  But,  as  you  stand  in  the 
court,  and  look  up  the  sides  of  the  tower  to  the 
gilded  pinnacle  on  its  dome,  you  discover  that  all  the 


120  A    TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

upper  rows  of  gods  and  demons  are  of  stucco.  Money 
evidently  gave  out,  as  the  structure  rose,  and  plaster 
took  the  place  of  stone. 

The  appurtenances  of  the  temple  are  tawdry  and 
childish.  Huge  cars,  in  which  images  of  the  gods  are 
carried  about  at  times  of  festival,  stand  in  the  court- 
yard. Each  car  has  its  bejeweled  beast  for  the  god 
or  goddess  to  ride — a  wooden  elephant,  a  wooden  bull, 
a  wooden  rat— each  with  trappings  of  many-colored 
glass,  to  imitate  rubies  and  diamonds,  and  each  with 
its  escort  of  dusky  priests,  not  forgetting  to  follow 
the  foreign  visitor  and  hold  out  their  hands  for  alms. 
Yet  in  these  corridors  there  were  prostrated  many 
absorbed  and  eager  worshipers,  seeking  protection 
or  aid  from  a  deity  more  demonlike  than  divine.  One's 
heart  grew  sick  as  he  realized  that,  still  in  these  latter 
days, 

The  heathen  in  his  blindness 
Bows  down  to  wood  and  stone, 

and  worships  in  a  temple  which  exhibits  in  its  halls  a 
hundred  immense  images  of  the  male  organ  of  genera- 
tion. 

It  was  a  relief  to  be  conducted  by  a  clergyman  of 
the  Anglican  faith  to  the  church  where  lie  buried  the 
remains  of  Schwartz,  the  first  English  missionary  to 
India.  It  must  have  required  great  gifts  of  mind  and 
heart  and  will  to  brave  Hindu  opposition,  to  win  the 
affection  and  support  of  a  raja,  and  to  lay  the  founda- 
tions of  a  Christian  community  in  this  heathen  land. 
Schwartz  was  a  Prussian  by  birth,  though  he  went  out 
as  a  missionary  of  a  Danish  society.  He  gave  his  life 


THE    DRAVIDIAN    TEMPLES  121 

and  his  fortune  to  the  cause  of  missions,  and  the  En- 
glish work  in  Tanjore  is  even  now  largely  supported 
by  the  endowments  which  he  left  behind  him  when 
he  died.  Our  good  friend  Doctor  Blake,  the  English 
clergyman,  took  us  to  the  palace  of  the  princess  of 
Tanjore,  also  to  the  raja's  library  of  Oriental  manu- 
scripts within  the  palace — a  priceless  collection  of 
eighteen  thousand  Sanskrit  manuscripts,  of  which  eight 
thousand  are  written  on  palm-leaves.  This  library  is 
unique  in  all  India;  and  it  shows  that  a  raja  in  Tan- 
jore, in  his  love  for  literature,  could  equal  the  raja 
of  Jaipur,  in  his  love  for  astronomy.  The  desire  for 
learning  was  a  passion  that  survived  the  fall,  an  evi- 
dence of  the  presence  in  humanity  of  the  preincarnate 
Christ,  "  the  Light  that  lighteth  every  man." 

Madura  is  a  hundred  miles  farther  south  than  Tan- 
jore. It  is  really  the  center  of  Dravidian  worship. 
While  some  features  of  the  Tanjore  temple  are  more 
beautiful,  the  temple  at  Madura  is  more  vast.  Five 
great  pyramidal  towers,  four  of  them  on  the  points 
of  the  compass,  meet  the  eye  as  one  looks  upon  the 
temple  from  a  distance.  The  temple  is  built  about  two 
great  shrines  or  cells,  one  for  the  god  Siva  and  the 
other  for  his  goddess  wife  Minakshi,  each  cell  sur- 
mounted by  a  noble  dome  of  plated  gold.  On  the  four 
sides  of  the  temple  are  stone  porches,  arcades,  and 
pillared  halls  of  great  variety,  filled  with  elaborate  and 
grotesque  carvings  and  sculptures.  The  extent  of  the 
structure  may  be  judged  from  the  simple  statement 
that  the  outer  walls,  twenty-five  feet  high,  surround  a 
space  eight  hundred  and  thirty  by  seven  hundred  and 
thirty  feet,  and  are  surmounted  by  four  lofty  gate- 


122  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

pyramids,  each  of  them  ten  stories  in  height.  The 
portico  roof  of  Minakshi's  Hall  is  supported  upon  six 
rows  of  carved  pillars,  each  made  from  a  single  stone. 
There  is  an  extensive  "  Golden  Lily  Tank,"  bordered 
by  a  granite  corridor  hung  with  cages  of  parrots,  and 
the  putrid  waters  of  the  tank  furnish  purification  pre- 
paratory to  worship  at  Minakshi's  shrine.  The  very 
porch  or  entrance  pavilion  of  this  shrine  is  called  "  The 
Hall  of  a  Thousand  Pillars,"  though  the  actual  num- 
ber is  nine  hundred  and  eighty-five.  Here  and  there 
among  the  pillars  are  seated  learned  men  or  pundits, 
who  place  offerings  of  flowers  and  perfumed  water 
before  their  sacred  books  and  chant  the  meaning  of 
Sanskrit  scriptures  to  groups  of  devout  listeners. 

The  great  temple,  with  its  dimly  lighted  corridors,  is 
open  to  the  public  day  and  night,  and  there  is  special 
illumination  by  hundreds  of  little  lamps  in  an  arch  at 
the  entrance  when  night  conies  on.  Long  avenues  are 
filled  with  buyers  and  sellers  of  wares,  and  the  rent 
of  their  stalls  furnishes  a  large  revenue  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  many  priests.  A  big  elephant  and  a  baby 
elephant,  each  with  the  mark  of  the  god  upon  its  fore- 
head, are  paraded  up  and  down,  and  are  taught  to  pick 
up  with  their  trunks  the  coins  thrown  down  by  visitors. 
Innumerable  dark  alcoves  invite  the  crowd  to  rest,  and 
many  a  sleeping  form  is  seen  at  the  foot  of  the  altars. 
Imagine  a  festival  night  with  these  dimly  lighted  courts 
crowded  with  worshipers,  the  fierce  and  lustful  images, 
the  glorification  of  the  lingam,  the  secret  places  of 
assignation !  And  this  is  the  acme  of  Hindu  religion ! 

There  are  better  things  than  this  to  be  seen  in 
Madura.  The  palace  of  Tirumala,  a  raja  of  the 


THE    DRAVIDIAN    TEMPLES  1 23 

seventh  century,  is  a  magnificent  specimen  of  Moorish 
architecture  with  unexpected  Gothic  tendencies.  Its 
entrance  hall,  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  feet  long, 
half  as  wide,  and  seventy  feet  high,  has  a  lofty  roof 
supported  by  heavy  stone  pillars  with  pointed  arches 
of  Saracenic  type.  It  shows  that  the  Moslem,  in  the 
long  ago,  had  at  least  a  temporary  hold  upon  South 
India.  This  palace,  which  has  the  structural  charac- 
ter of  a  Gothic  building,  has  now  been  partially  re- 
stored and  taken  for  the  law-courts  of  the  British 
Government. 

The  same  Tirumala  who  built  the  palace,  built  the 
Teppa  Kulam,  an  artificial  reservoir  outside  the  town, 
about  one  thousand  feet  on  a  side,  very  symmetrical  and 
the  largest  of  its  kind  in  South  India.  The  whole 
"  tank  "  is  surrounded  with  granite  walls  and  parapets, 
and  next  the  water  there  is  a  granite  walk  five  feet  wide 
running  round  the  whole  structure.  Flights  of  steps 
lead  down  to  the  water,  at  intervals.  In  the  center 
of  this  small  lake  is  an  island,  also  walled  around  with 
granite  slabs,  and  on  it  there  are  five  towers,  a  large 
one  in  the  center  and  one  at  each  of  the  four  corners. 
The  whole  effect  is  very  graceful  and  it  makes  a  sight 
long  to  be  remembered,  when  the  "  feast  of  lights  " 
takes  place  and  the  island  and  the  parapets  and  the 
granite  curbings  are  illuminated  with  hundreds  of  little 
oil-lamps.  Not  far  away  from  the  "  tank  "  is  a  famous 
banyan-tree  which  covers  with  its  shade  an  area  sixty 
yards  in  diameter,  has  a  main  stem  seventy  feet  in  cir- 
cumference, and  has  besides  two  hundred  branches 
that  have  struck  root. 

But  the  noblest  sight  of  Madura  is  its  American 


124  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

Congregational  Mission.  Beginning  in  1836,  the 
American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Mis- 
sions planned  and  founded  their  most  wise  and  suc- 
cessful foreign  missions.  They  have  aimed  to  do  one 
thing  well :  to  make  the  Madura  station  not  only  com- 
plete but  well  supported,  to  embrace  in  it  all  stages  of 
education  and  all  sorts  of  evangelization;  and  to  re- 
duce the  whole  work  to  a  unified  system.  And  the 
result  has  been  the  raising  up  of  a  large  native  min- 
istry, churches  with  twenty-two  thousand  members, 
schools  of  every  grade  from  the  kindergarten  to  the 
college  and  the  theological  seminary.  We  were  most 
hospitably  entertained  by  the  principal  of  the  college, 
Dr.  J.  X.  Miller,  and  the  other  missionaries;  and  we 
met  and  addressed  both  the  native  church  at  their  Sun- 
day service,  the  faculty  and  students  of  the  seminary, 
and  the  annual  conference  of  Congregational  mission- 
aries. The  Madura  Mission  is  a  light  shining  in  a 
dark  place,  the  darkest  place  indeed  in  India.  But  it 
is  a  light  that  cannot  be  hid.  Like  our  missions  to 
the  Burmans  and  the  Telugus,  it  is  showing  the 
power  of  the  gospel  to  "  cast  down  imaginations  and 
every  high  thing  that  exalteth  itself  against  the  knowl- 
edge of  God,"  and  to  make  a  spiritual  desert  "  bud  and 
blossom  as  the  rose." 


XII 
TWO  WEEKS  IN  CEYLON 


TWO  WEEKS  IN  CEYLON 


CEYLON  is  not  a  part  of  India.  It  is  a  Crown 
Colony  of  Great  Britain,  and  is  administered  directly 
from  London,  while  India  has  more  of  independence 
and  self-government.  The  relation  of  Ceylon  to  Brit- 
ain is  somewhat  like  that  of  the  Philippine  Islands  to 
the  United  States,  while  the  relation  of  Britain  to 
India  resembles  that  of  the  United  States  Government 
to  our  several  territories.  Ceylon,  however,  is  very 
productive  and  prosperous.  Surrounded  by  the  sea, 
it  is  free  from  Indian  droughts  and  famines.  Its 
people  are  stalwart  and  loyal.  The  English  language 
is  fast  becoming  the  easiest  method  of  communica- 
tion between  Cingalese  and  Tamils,  Hindus  and 
Malays.  Colombo  is  really  a  European  city,  as  large 
as  Rochester,  with  noble  public  buildings  and  lovely 
parks.  Our  Galle  Face  Hotel,  on  the  very  edge  of  the 
sea,  with  a  great  stretch  of  green  lawn  in  front  of  it, 
is  one  of  the  finest  hotels  in  the  East,  and  our  week 
of  rest  here  was  delightful. 

Buddhism  has  been  one  of  the  great  missionary 
religions  of  the  world.  It  was  a  reform  of  Hinduism. 
But  the  Hindus,  with  their  caste  system,  would  have 
none  of  it  and  drove  it  out.  The  Buddhist  triumphs 
were  in  Burma,  Tibet,  China,  Japan,  at  the  north; 
in  Ceylon  and  Java,  at  the  south.  Here  in  Ceylon  is 
preserved  a  sacred  tooth  of  Buddha;  and  one  of  his 

127 


128  A   TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

bones,  recently  discovered  in  northern  India,  is  to  be 
brought  next  week  with  great  pomp  and  ceremony  to 
the  temple  in  Kandy,  which  already  ranks  in  sacred- 
ness  next  to  the  great  Shwe  Dagon  pagoda  in  Ran- 
goon. A  temple  in  Java  is  founded  upon  a  single 
hair  of  Buddha's  head.  All  this  superstition  and  im- 
posture dates  back  to  a  couple  of  centuries  before 
Christ,  and  there  is  great  reason  to  believe  that  the 
Roman  Catholic  worship  of  relics  is  only  an  appropria- 
tion of  this  form  of  heathenism. 

Christian  schools  and  churches  are  doing  much  to 
undermine  Buddhism  in  Ceylon.  Colombo  is  espe- 
cially fortunate  in  possessing  a  noble  college  of  the 
Wesleyan  Methodists  and  a  strong  institution  of  all* 
grades  with  eight  hundred  students.  The  English 
Baptists  also  have  a  very  creditable  mission  work  under 
the  charge  of  Messrs.  Ewing  and  Charter;  while  Mr. 
Woods  is  the  able  pastor  of  an  English-speaking  Bap- 
tist church.  The  students  of  these  various  schools  usu- 
ally adopt  the  English  dress.  The  barefooted  pupils 
first  put  on  shoes,  then  the  coat,  finally  the  trousers. 
In  the  end  you  can  hardly  distinguish  them  from  Euro- 
peans. These  changes,  are  more  rapid  in  Colombo 
than  in  Madras.  Indeed,  British  rule  is  fast  trans- 
forming what  was  first  a  Portuguese,  and  then  a  Dutch, 
settlement  into  a  city  where  English  is  universally 
known  and  spoken. 

It  was  gratifying  to  find  that  the  Government  Col- 
lege, where  the  English  language  alone  is  used,  is 
opened  every  day  with  the  reading  of  Scripture  and 
with  prayer.  But  it  was  unpleasing  to  learn  that,  side 
by  side  with  these  Christian  influences,  the  Ananda 


TWO    WEEKS    IN    CEYLON  I2Q 

College,  a  theosophical  institution,  allied  to  Mrs.  Besant 
of  Madras,  was  exerting  an  influence  unfavorable  to 
Christianity,  not  only  by  setting  Buddha  side  by  side 
with  Christ,  but  by  urging  the  claim  of  Buddha  to  be 
the  supreme  ethical  teacher  of  the  world. 

Before  I  tell  you  of  our  visit  to  Buddhist  temples, 
I  must  speak  of  the  refuge  from  them  which  we  found 
at  Nurwara  Eliya,  sixty-two  hundred  feet  above  the 
sea.  Colombo  is  only  six  degrees  north  of  the  equator. 
Here  in  January  the  sun  casts  hardly  any  shadow  at 
noon,  and  the  middle  of  the  day  is  hot.  Later  in 
the  year  the  heat  is  intense,  day  and  night.  So  British 
officials  combine  with  the  rich  of  every  tongue,  and 
even  with  the  missionaries,  to  make  their  summer  quar- 
ters high  up  among  the  hills.  We  were  transported 
thither  on  a  narrow-gage  railway,  cut  into  the  sides 
of  precipices,  running  through  tunnels,  and  so  tortu- 
ous as  to  form  a  hundred  horseshoe  loops.  The  road 
seemed  almost  a  miracle  of  engineering.  But  the  views 
were  beautiful  beyond  description.  It  was  Switzerland 
without  its  ruggedness.  It  was  Italy  on  the  southern 
side  of  the  Alps,  as  "  Fhilip  van  Artevelde  "  best  de- 
scribes it: 

Sublime,  but  neither  bleak  nor  bare 

Nor  misty,  are  the  mountains  there; 

Softly  sublime,  profusely  fair; 

Up  to  their  summits  clothed  in  green, 

And  fruitful  as  the  vales  between,  , 

They  lightly  rise 

And  scale  the  skies, 

And  groves  and  gardens  still  abound, 

For  where  no  shoot 

Can  else  take  root, 

The  peaks  are  shelved  and  terraced  round. 


130  A   TOUR    OF   THE    MISSIONS 

I  am  inclined  to  think  that,  of  all  the  beautiful 
railway  rides  I  have  ever  taken,  this  was  the  finest. 
From  the  rice-fields  of  the  plains  we  passed  upward 
through  endless  tea-plantations,  where  every  inch  of 
soil  was  preserved  and  utilized  by  the  construction  of 
artificial  terraces.  In  the  midst  of  these  plantations, 
rubber  trees  were  set  at  intervals.  There  were  many 
instances  when  we  looked  down  from  our  airy  perch, 
on  the  edge  of  a  precipice,  at  least  a  thousand  feet,  and 
saw  ourselves  on  the  side  of  a  veritable  amphitheater 
of  mountains  towering  a  thousand  feet  above  us  and 
covered  with  ro\vs  of  tea-plants  from  the  bottom  to 
the  top.  This  amphitheater  was  often  two  miles  across, 
every  foot  of  the  ground  minutely  cultivated  and  a 
perfect  sea  of  verdure.  But,  as  we  went  up,  the  palm 
gave  place  to  the  pine;  cold  succeeded  to  heat;  and 
to  be  at  all  comfortable  at  our  hotel  we  were  obliged 
to  order  fire  in  our  rooms. 

Beautiful  for  situation  as  was  Nurwara  Eliya,  we 
were  glad,  on  account  of  the  January  cold,  to  leave 
it.  And  we  went  to  Kandy.  I  wonder  whether  our 
wrord  "  candy  "  is  derived  from  that  sweet  place.  I 
agree  with  some  celebrated  author,  whose  name  I  for- 
get, in  saying  that  "  Kandy  is  the  loveliest  city  in  the 
loveliest  island  in  the  world."  Of  late  years  Kandy 
has  become  the  resort  of  tourists,  though  the  present 
war  has  greatly  diminished  their  number.  A  hotel 
that  was  accustomed  to  entertain  fifty  guests  now  has 
only  half  a  dozen.  But  the  beauty  of  the  place  abides. 
An  artificial  lake,  with  an  island  of  green  in  its  center 
and  winding  among  a  forest  of  stately  palms,  is  sur- 
rounded by  a  circlet  of  hills.  On  the  summit  of  one 


TWO    WEEKS    IX    CEYLON 

of  these  hills  is  the  Missionary  Rest-house,  founded 
and  endowed  by  a  wealthy  Christian  woman  for  the 
relief  of  pilgrims,  as  was  the  House  Beautiful  of  Bun- 
yan's  story.  There  we  were  invited  to  afternoon-tea, 
and  as  I  looked  upon  the  fairylike  landscape  I  almost 
thought  the  Garden  of  Eden  had  come  again. 

But  I  could  not  long  be  deceived,  for  at  the  very 
foot  of  this  hill  was  the  most  famous  Buddhist  temple 
of  Ceylon.  If  this  is  Paradise,  it  is  Paradise  Lost. 
Here  Buddha's  tooth  is  worshiped,  and  here  a  newly 
discovered  bone  of  his  body  is  to  add  sanctity  to  the 
temple.  We  attended  the  evening  worship,  which  con- 
sisted of  a  torchlight  procession  of  priests,  with  beat- 
ing of  tom-toms  and  frenzied  dancing  of  musicians, 
which  would  have  done  credit  to  the  savagery  of  the 
Fiji  Islands.  The  temple  here  has  no  lofty  pagoda. 
It  shows  what  the  original  pagoda  really  was,  for  this 
temple  has  a  number  of  bell-shaped  structures  resting 
on  the  ground.  Next,  historically,  came  the  elevation 
of  the  bell  upon  a  stone  platform ;  and,  finally,  the  lift- 
ing of  it  into  the  air,  resplendent  with  gilding.  Kandy 
illustrates  the  humble  beginnings  of  Buddhistic  wor- 
ship, but  with  later  accessories  begotten  by  irrational 
devotion. 

I  should  mention,  however,  the  only  sign  of  intel- 
ligence which  I  found  in  this  Buddhist  temple.  It  was 
the  library  of  Pali  manuscripts  containing  the  sacred 
books  and  stories  of  Buddha's  life  and  doctrine.  Many 
of  these  manuscripts  were  written  on  palm-leaves  and 
were  wrapped  in  silken  coverings.  Some  had  been  pre- 
sented by  Siamese  and  by  Burmese  kings.  Some  were 
ancient.  I  saw  no  priest  who  could  read  them,  and  I 


132  A   TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

fancy  that  the  sacred  books  are  really  studied  only  by 
pundits,  whose  vocation  is  that  of  teaching,  and  whose 
personal  beliefs  may  be  very  different  from  those  of 
orthodox  Buddhism.  It  was  pleasant  to  find,  not  far 
from  the  Temple  of  the  Tooth,  a  little  church  of  the 
English  Baptists,  which  sends  out  light  into  all  the 
surrounding  darkness.  Its  pastor  is  a  native  Christian, 
who  preaches  every  Sunday  morning  in  Cingalese  and 
every  Sunday  evening  in  English,  while  his  week-days 
are  devoted  to  the  work  of  conducting  an  English 
boys'  school. 

Kandy  is  celebrated  also  for  its  botanical  gardens. 
Only  those  of  Java  compare  with  them  in  complete- 
ness. The  long  avenues  of  palms  of  different  vari- 
eties— palmyra,  talipot,  sago,  royal,  sealing-wax — and 
the  specimens  of  bamboo,  India  rubber,  and  rain-tree, 
are  unique  and  wonderful.  The  rain-tree  is  so  called 
because  the  vast  spread  of  its  branches  and  the  density 
of  its  foliage  collect  the  dew  to  such  an  extent  as  ac- 
tually to  water  the  ground  upon  which  it  drops.  Think 
of  viewing-  in  one  morning  of  two  hours'  length,  a 
score  of  trees  we  had  hitherto  known  only  in  the  tales 
of  the  tropics:  the  traveler's  tree  with  its  fernlike 
leaves,  the  cannon-ball  tree,  the  deadly  upas,  the  nour- 
ishing breadfruit,  the  clove,  the  cinnamon,  the  mace  or 
nutmeg,  the  vanilla,  the  guava,  the  cork,  the  almond, 
the  mulberry,  the  mango,  the  sandalwood !  There  were 
great  screw-pines,  lignum-vitae,  mahogany,  mimosa, 
magnolia  trees;  and  the  tree-fern,  the  giant  creeper, 
the  panatna-hat  plant,  the  Peruvian  cactus,  the  papyrus, 
the  pineapple,  and  a  great  collection  of  orchids.  Only 
the  sunshine  and  the  moisture  of  Ceylon  could  pro- 


TWO    WEEKS    IN    CEYLON  133 

duce  such  a  result.  A  tree  cared  for  from  its  first 
sprouting,  and  favored  by  the  elements,  becomes  a 
wonder  of  the  world.  It  shows  what  man  may  be- 
come under  the  tutelage  of  God. 

Anurajahpura  was  our  last  place  to  visit.  Far  to 
the  north  of  Colombo,  it  is  the  most  important  extant 
specimen  of  the  ruined  cities  of  Ceylon.  Before  the 
time  of  Christ  it  was  the  seat  of  a  kingdom  that  em- 
braced the  whole  island.  Buddhism,  after  a  life-and- 
death  struggle,  captured  it  and  erected  in  it  structures 
for  worship,  which  for  grandeur  and  beauty  rivaled 
those  of  Burma.  Two  pagodas,  or  dagobas,  of  solid 
brick,  each  of  them  more  than  two  hundred  feet  high, 
tower  up  before  one  as  he  enters  the  town.  These 
structures  are  covered  with  verdure,  for  grasses  and 
shrubs  have  eaten  their  way  into  the  mortar  on  the 
sides,  until  the  dagobas  resemble  conical  natural  hills. 
It  is  said  that  the  brick  of  a  single  one  would  suffice 
to  build  a  wall  eight  feet  high. and  a  foot  thick  from 
Edinburgh  to  London.  One  of  them  is  being  restored, 
and  fifty  men  are  at  work  upon  it,  tearing  away  the 
vegetation  and  building  anew  the  outside  covering 
of  brick.  The  dagoba  itself  is  not  a  temple,  for  it  is 
solid  and  has  no  chamber  within ;  but  at  its  base  is  a 
structure,  infinitesimal  in  size  as  compared  with  the 
one  that  towers  above  it,  and  in  this  structure  there  is 
a  reclining  statue  of  Buddha  seventy  feet  long.  Buddha 
must  have  been  a  giant,  for  his  footprints  are  four 
feet  long,  and  his  tooth  is  as  large  as  the  tooth  of  an 
alligator,  and  surprisingly  like  one. 

The  grounds  in  the  neighborhood  of  these  towering 
dagobas  are  strewn  with  ruins.  Sixteen  hundred  pil- 


134  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

lars  of  stone,  seven  feet  high,  remain  to  show  the  vast 
foundations  of  an  ancient  Buddhist  monastery.  There 
is  also  a  temple  excavated  in  the  solid  rock  of  the  hill- 
side, and  adorned  with  curious  carvings  of  elephants. 
We  made  the  acquaintance  of  its  high  priest  under 
very  peculiar  circumstances.  We  met  him  at  a  funeral. 
It  was  the  cremation  of  one  of  his  priests.  On  the 
outskirts  of  the  village  a  great  crowd  surrounded  a 
burning  pyre.  Two  or  three  cords  of  rough  wood  had 
been  piled  up,  with  the  body  of  the  priest  in  its  center 
and  the  bier  on  which  the  body  had  been  brought  laid 
upon  its  top.  The  fire  was  blazing  upward,  and  a 
deafening  beating  of  tom-toms  gave  sacredness  to  the 
obsequies.  The  awe-stricken  followers  of  Buddha 
stood  at  a  little  distance  around,  while  the  flames 
grew  fierce,  and  the  sickening  odor  of  burning  flesh 
entered  their  nostrils.  It  was  no  wonder  that  they 
were  willing  to  follow  the  high  priest,  when  he  came 
to  salute  me  as  a  minister  of  religion  from  the  other 
side  of  the  world.  He  was  eighty-eight  years  of  age. 
Clothed  in  his  saffron  robe  and  holding  with  trembling 
hands  his  rod  of  office,  he  seemed  the  decaying  speci- 
men of  a  moribund  religion.  He  presented  me  with 
an  umbrella  of  yellow  silk.  It  had  an  ivory  handle 
with  the  carving  of  a  lotus  bud  on  its  end.  I  could 
not  let  him  make  such  a  present  without  some  reward, 
and  he  seemed  grateful  for  the  few  rupees  which  my 
interpreter  wrapped  up  in  his  handkerchief.  He  lifted 
up  his  fan  and  fanned  me,  as  we  parted,  while  he 
uttered  some  words  of  blessing.  I  could  hardly  doubt 
his  good  will,  or  fail  to  hope  that  some  gleams  of 
heavenly  light  had  come  to  him  from  Christ,  the  Light 


TWO    WEEKS    IN    CEYLON  135 

of  the  world.  But  Anurajahpura  was,  like  Pagan  in 
Burma,  the  type  of  a  vanishing  religion,  and  its  high 
priest  was,  like  the  Jewish  high  priest  of  old,  the  type 
of  a  priesthood  sure  to  pass  away,  since  Christ,  the 
true  High  Priest,  has  come. 


XIII 
JAVA  AND  BUDDHISM 


JAVA  AND  BUDDHISM 


WE  have  crossed  the  equator,  and  the  Southern 
Cross,  invisible  to  northern  eyes,  seems  still  to  beckon 
us  onward.  But  we  have  reached  the  most  distant 
point  of  our  journey,  and  henceforth  \ve  shall  be 
homeward  bound,  taking  China  and  Japan  as  we  go. 
Java  is  not  so  hot  as  we  expected.  An  island  like 
Cuba,  six  hundred  miles  long  and  only  two  hundred 
broad,  has  sea-breezes  enough  to  keep  it  tolerably  cool. 
Rain  falls  almost  every  day,  with  an  average  of  twelve 
feet  in  a  year.  As  the  moisture  is  excessive,  all  sorts 
of  vegetation  are  luxuriant.  Java  is  a  gem  of  the 
ocean,  and  an  emerald  gem  at  that.  Life  here  is  as 
easy  as  anywhere  on  earth,  and  there  is  a  swarming 
population.  While  Ceylon,  similar  in  area,  has  only 
five  millions  of  inhabitants,  Java  has  thirty-five  mil- 
lions. 

Java  is  the  jewel  of  the  Dutch  Crown,  one  of  the 
most  fertile  and  productive  islands  of  the  world. 
Coffee  and  tea,  rice  and  sugar,  salt  and  spice,  tobacco 
and  corn,  coal  and  oil,  coconut  and  rubber,  are  ex- 
ported in  an  aggregate  of  two  hundred  millions  of  our 
dollars  every  year,  while  the  aggregate  of  imports  is 
little  more  than  a  hundred  and  twenty  millions.  The 
Dutch  have  taken  a  colony  whose  deficits  once  fright- 
ened the  English  into  abandoning  it,  and  by  the 
famous  "  culture  system  "of  letting  out  the  land  upon 

139 


140  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

wise  conditions  as  to  the  kind  and  quantity  of  pro- 
duction, have  turned  the  whole  island  into  a  veritable 
garden,  and  a  principal  source  of  revenue  for  Holland. 
The  Dutch  indeed  have  drawn  from  Java  much  more 
than  they  have  given.  The  Roman  Empire  should 
have  taught  them  that  incorporation  of  a  colony,  and 
privilege  granted  to  it,  were  the  only  security  for 
permanent  possession.  Until  ten  years  ago,  however, 
the  Dutch  policy  was  one  of  repression  rather  than  one 
of  development.  While  Britain  has  tried  by  her  schools 
and  hospitals  to  Anglicize  India,  Holland,  for  many 
years,  tried  to  keep  the  Javanese  apart  and  in  sub- 
jection, discouraging  their  study  of  the  Dutch  language 
and  giving  them  also  no  share  in  the  government. 
This  policy  has  at  last  been  seen  to  be  suicidal ;  Chinese 
immigration  has  added  an  element  of  vigor,  industry, 
and  discontent ;  the  modern  movement  in  India  and  in 
Japan  has  provoked  new  aspirations  here;  even  the 
Malay  has  become  aware  that  he  has  rights.  Dutch 
schools  have  at  last  begun  to  educate  the  people;  the 
more  progressive  among  the  students  are  also  learning 
English;  and  Java  now  bids  fair  to  press  forward  to 
occupy  a  position  in  the  van  of  national  and  demo- 
cratic progress. 

I  am  deeply  impressed  with  the  density  and  vastness 
of  this  population.  Only  Belgium  surpasses  Java  in 
the  number  of  inhabitants  to  the  square  mile.  We  have 
taken  a  ride  by  rail  for  four  hundred  miles  through  the 
center  of  the  island.  We  have  passed  volcanoes  ac- 
tually smoking;  for  a  long  range  of  mountains,  rising 
sometimes  to  a  height  of  twelve  thousand  feet,  con- 
stitutes the  back-bone  of  Java.  There  are  sublime  and 


JAVA    AND    BUDDHISM  14! 

beautiful  landscapes  all  along  the  way,  sublime  because 
of  their  occasionally  rocky  grandeur,  and  beautiful  be- 
cause of  the  minute  cultivation  that  adorns  both  hill- 
side and  plain.  The  endless  rice-fields,  and  the  fields 
of  sugar-cane  that  stretch  for  miles  like  a  billowy  sea, 
make  a  railway  journey  by  day  a  constant  source  of 
delight.  You  ride  in  a  perennial  garden,  and  it  is  per- 
fectly natural  that  the  bird  of  paradise  should  have  its 
habitat  here.  Like  Ceylon,  Java  is  sure  to  be  the  re- 
sort of  innumerable  tourists,  for  here  are  wonders  be- 
yond any  to  be  found  in  localities  more  commonly 
visited. 

And  yet  it  is  the  people  that  interest  one  even  more 
than  the  land  they  live  in.  We  turned  aside  at  different 
points,  from  the  stations  of  the  railways,  and  got 
glimpses  of  the  Javanese  in  their  country  homes.  I 
am  bound  to  say  that  these  homes  were  often  primitive 
in  the  extreme,  mere  shacks  or  huts  of  bamboo  ana 
thatch,  often  without  windows  and  with  only  a  door 
in  front  and  a  door  behind,  sometimes  standing  in  a 
pool  of  shallow  water  or  lifted  on  stilts  to  escape  the 
rain.  But  everybody  seemed  to  be  at  work,  except  on 
market-days,  when  the  whole  population  of  a  district 
gathered  in  a  country  fair.  The  throng  and  press  of 
these  trading-days,  the  strife  and  din,  the  variety  of 
wares,  and  the  sharpness  of  competition,  were  some- 
thing new  to  us  and  long  to  be  remembered.  The 
amusements  of  the  Javanese,  their  music,  their  shadow- 
dances,  all  show  a  vigor  and  passion,  which  explain 
their  occasional  use  of  the  "  kriss  "  or  Malay  dagger, 
and  the  difficulty  of  subduing  and  civilizing  so  ardent 
and  imaginative  a  people.  But  they  are  a  people  sui 


142  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

generis,  and  sure,  when  roused  and  educated,  to  take 
their  part  on  the  modern  stage. 

I  have  intimated  that  the  Dutch  Government  has  seen 
its  past  mistakes,  and  has  entered  upon  a  new  and  more 
generous  policy.  Nothing  could  demonstrate  this  bet- 
ter than  the  botanical  gardens  at  Buitenzorg.  These 
are  unique  in  the  world,  the  most  complete  and  the 
most  practical.  The  gardens  at  Kandy  in  Ceylon  are 
more  artistically  arranged  and  are  more  beautiful  to 
the  ordinary  visitor.  But  these  in  Java  are  more  scien- 
tific and  more  helpful  to  the  general  development  of 
the  country.  They  include  the  chemical  investigation 
of  agricultural  products,  as  well  as  the  testing  of  their 
nutritive  value  and  their  tensile  strength.  Rubber 
planters  are  shown  proper  methods  of  culture,  and 
also  improved  methods  of  preparing  the  product  for 
market.  Seventy  different  varieties  of  rice  have  been 
discovered  and  classified;  and  the  tillers  of  the  soil 
have  been  shown  how  they  can  greatly  increase  the 
yield  of  their  acreage.  All  the  great  botanical  col- 
lections of  the  world  communicate  their  novelties  and 
discoveries  to  the  Java  gardens.  Here  at  Buitenzorg 
there  is  a  school  of  forestry  and  another  of  veterinary 
science,  each  of  these  with  practical  demonstrations. 
Trees  and  plants  in  the  gardens  are  grouped  in  scien- 
tific classes,  the  palms  by  themselves,  the  pines  by  them- 
selves. Here  the  Victoria  rcgia,  the  royal  pond-lily, 
flourishes  in  its  proper  habitat.  The  avenues  of  kanari 
trees,  with  their  lofty  overarching  vaulting,  are  grander 
than  any  nave  of  French  cathedral.  It  will  be  seen 
at  once  that  the  Botanical  and  Experimental  Gardens 
of  Java  are  of  immense  service  to  agriculture  and  to 


JAVA    AND    BUDDHISM  143 

science  throughout  the  world.  We  had  the  great  privi- 
lege of  being  personally  conducted  through  them  by 
Dr.  K.  J.  Lovink,  Director  of  the  Dutch  Department 
of  Agriculture,  Industry,  and  Commerce. 

I  wish  I  could  say  as  much  for  the  religious  pros- 
pects of  Java  as  I  can  say  for  its  economical  and  polit- 
ical prospects.  There  is  even  greater  need  of  change 
in  this  regard,  for  the  island  has  been  a  very  stronghold 
of  Buddhism,  as  it  is  now  of  Mohammedanism.  When 
driven  out  from  India,  the  Buddhist  missionaries  came 
to  Java  and  here  found  a  welcome.  Javanese  kings 
erected  temples  so  enormous  and  so  rich  in  sculpture 
that,  defaced  and  decayed  as  they  now  are,  they  have 
no  superiors  on  earth.  It  was,  indeed,  the  fame  of 
Boro  Budor,  that  most  attracted  us  to  Java,  and  we 
made  a  journey  of  thirteen  hours  to  inspect  this  re- 
nowned ruin. 

Imagine  a  structure  upon  an  eminence  from  which 
it  is  visible  for  miles,  yet  walled  in  on  one  side  by  a 
lofty  range  of  mountains,  and  on  the  other  side  com- 
manding a  magnificent  view  of  cultivated  plains. 
Imagine  a  temple  of  brick,  like  the  great  pyramid  of 
Egypt,  more  than  five  hundred  feet  square,  with  five 
broad  terraces,  the  uppermost  of  which  encloses  an  im- 
mense sitting  statue  of  Buddha.  The  topmost  crown 
of  this  solid  structure  rises  more  than  two  hundred 
feet  above  the  ground. 

The  wonder  of  Boro  Budor  is,  however,  not  the 
vastness  of  the  structure,  containing  though  it  does  an 
amount  of  material  five  times  as  great  as  that  of  any 
English  cathedral,  so  much  as  it  is  the  enormous  amount 
of  artistic  work  that  has  been  expended  upon  it.  Each 


144  A   TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

of  these  five  terraces  has  sculptured  upon  its  side  walls 
some  representation  in  bas-relief  of  the  legendary  in- 
cidents of  Buddha's  existence,  not  only  in  the  present 
state,  but  in  his  previous  states  of  being.  You  walk, 
as  it  were,  through  a  picture-gallery  of  the  life  of 
Buddha.  The  bas-reliefs  are  wrought  out  with  such 
delicacy  as  to  suggest  the  influence  of  Greek  art  upon 
the  multitude  of  artists  who  toiled  for  years  to  produce 
them.  The  effect,  at  least,  is  Grecian ;  and  the  number 
of  the  plaques  is  so  great  that,  if  they  were  placed 
in  a  continuous  row,  the  line  would  be  three  miles 
long. 

Besides  these  sculptures,  the  terrace-walls  are  inter- 
rupted at  regular  intervals  by  four  hundred  and  thirty- 
six  niches  or  alcove-chapels,  each  with  its  image  of 
Buddha  facing  the  outside  world,  so  that  the  visitor 
approaching  the  temple  cannot  fail  to  see  one  hundred 
and  nine  Buddhas,  or  one-fourth  of  the  total  number, 
looking  down  upon  him.  Above  these  alcove-chapels 
there  are  seventy-two  small  latticed  domes,  or  dagobas, 
each  with  its  statue  of  Buddha  imprisoned  within,  as  if 
he  were  preparing  himself,  by  seclusion  and  meditation, 
for  the  final  state  in  which  the  great  chamber  which 
crowns  the  structure  represents  him,  I  mean  the  state 
of  passivity  and  bliss,  which  has  escaped  the  evils  of 
transmigration  and  has  attained  to  absorption  of  per- 
sonal existence  of  the  impersonal  world-force  which 
the  Hindu  called  Brahma. 

It  is  difBcult  to  express  the  emotions  which  are 
roused  by  such  an  exhibition  of  man's  religious  instinct, 
enlightened  simply  by  God's  revelation  of  himself  in 
the  natural  world  and  in  the  nature  of  man.  Here  is 


JAVA   AND    BUDDHISM  145 

a  seeking,  but  not  a  finding,  a  groping  in  the  dark,  with 
only  the  faint  rays  of  conscience  to  show  man  the 
way.  Yet  he  who  is  the  Light  of  the  World  was 
lighting  every  man,  before  his  advent  in  the  flesh,  and 
even  Buddha  was  a  reformer  and  an  advance  upon  the 
Brahmanism  cf  his  time.  He  preached  the  doctrine  of 
unselfish  devotion,  but  he  turned  it  into  error  by 
ignoring  man's  duty  to  himself.  He  made  extinction 
of  desire,  rather  than  purification  of  desire,  to  be  the 
way  to  happiness.  How  different  this  from  that  thirst 
after  God,  even  the  living  God,  which  animated  the 
Psalmist,  or  that  hungering  and  thirsting  after  right- 
eousness which  Christ  says  shall  be  filled!  Buddha 
found  in  self,  rather  than  in  God,  the  power  to  over- 
come evil.  Buddhism  has  no  personal  God  to  whom 
appeal  may  be  made  for  strength,  and  Buddha  himself 
has  no  power  to  answer  prayer,  since  he  long  ago 
passed  into  a  realm  of  inactivity  which  is  practically  in- 
distinguishable from  non-existence.  There  is  no  atone- 
ment for  past  sin  nor  escape  from  its  consequences,  but 
by  the  giving  up  of  being.  Buddhism  is  a  pessimistic 
and  joyless  religion.  Hence  it  suffers  deterioration  in 
competition  with  the  more  active  systems.  Close  by 
Boro  Budor,  where  Buddhism  reached  its  culmination, 
are  the  temples  of  Mendoet  and  Brambanam,  which 
show  a  reversion  in  the  popular  mind  to  Hindu  Brah- 
manism. And  when  the  Moslem  came,  with  his  doc- 
trine of  a  personal  and  living  God,  Buddhism  had  no 
force  to  combat  it.  Boro  Budor,  once  the  center  of 
worship  for  a  mighty  kingdom,  now  stands  alone  and 
desolate  in  a  great  wilderness,  without  priest  or  wor- 
shiper. Djokjokarta,  the  next  city  in  size  to  Batavia,  is 
K 


146  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

to-day  more  Mohammedan  than  Buddhist.  Christian 
schools  and  missions  are  doing  much  to  turn  this  moral 
wilderness  into  beauty.  To  convert  Java  to  Christian- 
ity will  add  to  Christ's  subjects  the  very  Queen  of  the 
East. 


XIV 
THE  RENAISSANCE  IN  INDIA 


THE  RENAISSANCE  IN  INDIA 


A  RECENT  book  by  Prof.  C.  F.  Andrews,  formerly  of 
the  Cambridge  Brotherhood  in  Delhi,  has  arrested  my 
attention,  as  the  best  extant  synopsis  of  the  religious 
history  and  prospects  of  that  great  country.  It  is  en- 
titled "  The  Renaissance  in  India.''  It  has  not  yet  been 
reprinted  in  America,  and  can  be  obtained  only  in  the 
British  Isles.  I  have  thought  it  worth  while  to  make 
it  known  among  us  by  writing  a  review,  and  the  fol- 
lowing paper  might  perhaps  serve  such  a  purpose.  But, 
in  the  writing,  so  many  thoughts  and  illustrations  of 
my  own  have  suggested  themselves,  that  I  cannot  credit 
Professor  Andrews  with  the  result,  except  in  part,  and 
I  submit  my  work  as  my  own  almost  as  much  as  it 
is  his. 

Let  me  first,  however,  do  Professor  Andrews  the 
justice  of  explaining  that  the  Cambridge  Brotherhood 
is  a  semimonastic  fraternity  of  the  Church  of  England, 
which  aims  to  convert  India  to  Christianity  by  in- 
doctrinating its  higher  classes.  All  its  members  are 
bachelors,  and  their  pure  life  as  well  as  their  learning 
and  liberality  are  attractive  to  educated  heathen  seekers 
after  God.  Our  author  is  himself  a  devout  believer  in 
a  preexistent  Christ,  and  he  recognizes  some  rays  of 
Christ's  light  in  Buddha  and  in  Confucius.  This  faith 
has  led  him  to  sever  his  connection  with  the  Cambridge 
Brotherhood  of  late,  and  to  connect  himself  with  the 

149 


I5O  A   TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

school  of  Rabindranath  Tagore,  whom  the  British 
Government  has  recently  knighted  for  his  poetical  gifts 
and  for  his  political  loyalty.  Members  of  the  Brother- 
hood have  thought  this  leaving  of  their  body  a  mistake 
of  judgment,  and  too  great  a  concession  to  a  rival 
religion,  while  they  still  admire  the  self-devotion  which 
leads  their  former  brother  to  carry  his  advocacy  of 
Christianity  into  what  he  regards  as  the  most  promising 
school  of  Hinduism.  With  this  explanation  I  proceed 
to  the  treatment  of  my  subject. 

In  the  fifteenth  century  the  European  world  was  in- 
tellectually born  again.  The  barbarian  Goths  and  Van- 
dals had  put  an  end  to  the  Roman  Empire,  and  learn- 
ing had  taken  refuge  in  the  monasteries.  Even  that 
learning  ha'd  become  ecclesiastical.  Precious  manu- 
scripts of  the  Greek  classics  had  their  original  writing 
wiped  off  to  make  room  for  monkish  homilies.  The 
people  were  in  ignorance  and  were  ruled  by  the  priests. 
But  the  Crusades  had  brought  about  a  new  intercourse 
between  the  West  and  the  East.  The  fall  of  Constan- 
tinople sent  Greek  books  and  Greek  scholars  to  Venice 
and  to  Rome.  Greek  art  inspired  Michelangelo  and 
Raphael.  A  great  wave  of  enthusiasm  for  the  new 
learning  swept  over  Europe.  The  printing-press  mul- 
tiplied copies  of  the  old  literature  and  put  them  in 
the  hands  of  the  poor.  It  was  the  precursor  of  a  new 
civilization,  and  because  it  was  a  new  birth  of  thought, 
we  call  it  the  Renaissance. 

The  Renaissance,  however,  needed  another  factor  to 
complement  it.  Not  merely  intellect  was  sleeping,  but 
also  man's  moral  nature.  Conscience  and  will  re- 


THE   RENAISSANCE    IN    INDIA  15! 

quired  new  stimulus.  Religious  reformation  was 
necessary  as  much  as  intellectual  revival.  Greek  books 
brought  with  them  the  vice,  as  well  as  the  art,  of  the 
East.  Renaissance  without  Reformation  produced  the 
Borgias  and  their  unspeakable  wickedness.  Erasmus 
without  Luther  wtwld  never  have  saved  Europe  from 
ruin.  It  was  the  new  view  of  Christ  that  showed  men 
their  sins,  brought  repentance  and  hope,  purified  litera- 
ture, gave  power  to  social  truth,  and  united  with  the 
new  learning  to  make  possible  our  modern  civilization. 
It  was  a  triumph  of  Christianity  over  the  powers  of 
darkness,  for  Christianity  involves  both  Renaissance 
and  Reformation. 

A  similar  intellectual  change  has  been  coming  over 
the  Eastern  world,  and  has  been  awakening  the  slum- 
bering nations.  Who  would  have  foretold  a  half- 
century  ago*  that  Turkey  and  Persia,  Japan  and  China, 
would  now  have  constitutional  governments  and  legis- 
lative assemblies  ?  The  world  has  moved  very  fast  dur- 
ing the  past  decade.  Modern  inventions  have  given 
new  wings  to  thought,  the  nations  have  been  coming 
to  self-consciousness,  freedom  is  in  the  air,  even  war 
is  teaching  the  absurdity  of  committing  the  destiny  of 
a  whole  people  to  the  arbitrary  rule  of  any  single 
monarch.  The  success  of  Japan  in  her  struggle  with 
Russia  aroused  the  whole  East.  China  has  awaked 
from  the  sleep  of  ages.  And  India  is  the  scene  of 
unrest,  and  will  not  be  satisfied  until  her  vast  popula- 
tions are  given  a  larger  share  in  her  government. 

India  has  witnessed  the  beginnings  of  her  renais- 
sance. The  universities  which  her  rulers  have  estab- 
lished have  diffused  the  new  learning.  But  they  have 


152  A   TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

also  raised  up  a  host  of  educated  men,  some  of  whom 
can  find  no  employment  except  in  sedition.  False 
philosophies,  imported  from  the  West,  have  made  these 
same  men  agnostic,  and  have  disposed  them  to  put  evo- 
lution in  place  of  God.  Old  religions  have  lost  even 
their  little  power  to  control  the  moral  life,  and  a  vague 
desire  for  independence  of  all  restraint  has  led  to  revo- 
lutionary and  even  anarchistic  plots.  We  have  some  of 
the  same  dangers  in  our  Southern  States.  The  negro 
is  in  many  cases  receiving  a  higher  education  than  he 
can  utilize,  and  is  becoming  a  possible  leader  of  revolt, 
while  there  is  a  vast  inflammable  multitude  of  un- 
educated negroes  whom  he  can  incite  to  violence  and 
disorder.  As  with  us,  Christianity  is  needed  side  by 
side  with  education,  so  in  India  to-day,  intellectual 
renaissance  needs  to  be  supplemented  by  religious 
reformation. 

A  glance  at  the  history  of  India's  religious  systems 
will  help  our  understanding  of  the  problem.  The 
earliest  record  is  that  of  the  Rig- Veda.  It  is  a  recog- 
nition of  the  powers  of  nature,  and  an  exaltation  of 
them  to  divine  honor  and  worship.  The  apostle  Paul 
gives  us  the  further  explanation  that  this  deification 
of  God's  works  was  the  result  of  a  previous  unwilling- 
ness to  retain  the  personal  God  in  their  knowledge.  To 
worship  God's  manifestations  is  to  lose  the  sense  of  his 
unity  and  his  moral  governance.  Men  preferred  the 
sun  in  the  heavens  to  the  Sun  of  Righteousness.  They 
lost  sight -of  the  true  God  in  self-chosen  admiration  of 
his  works.  "  While  the  Semitic  mind  gravitated  to- 
ward the  ethical  and  the  personal,  the  Aryan  gravitated 
toward  the  philosophic  and  the  impersonal." 


THE   RENAISSANCE   IN    INDIA  153 

The  Upanishads  are  the  second  series  of  Hindu 
scriptures.  These  practically  identify  the  human  soul, 
as  well  as  all  natural  objects,  with  the  supreme  God. 
The  self  is  only  a  manifestation  of  Brahma.  The  trend 
is  toward  absolute  pantheism.  The  individual  is  lost 
in  the  whole,  and  the  realization  of  this  is  salvation. 
But  humanity  cannot  be  content  without  the  semblance 
of  personality  in  God,  and  since  everything  has  become 
divine,  it  was  easy  to  regard  not  only  natural  powers, 
but  also  personal  beings  as  gods.  Polytheism  was  the 
result.  Vishnu  and  Siva,  gods  of  reproductive  and 
destructive  powers,  came  to  be  worshiped.  Incarnation 
and  transmigration  followed.  The  incarnation  was  not 
the  incarnation  of  the  supreme  Brahma,  but  of  one 
of  the  subordinate  deities,  Vishnu,  and  even  this  in- 
carnation was  but  a  temporary  assumption  of  human 
form — a  vanishing  manifestation,  to  be  put  off  again 
like  a  worn-out  garment  when  the  real  god  returned 
to  his  heaven.  The  Hindu  Trimurti  was  never  the 
Christian  Trinity;  for  Christ  is  not  only  the  supreme 
God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  but  also  the  eternal  Revealer 
of  God,  who  takes  our  humanity  to  be  a  part  of  him- 
self forever,  the  partaker  of  his  inmost  being  and  the 
sharer  of  his  throne. 

While  we  credit  Hinduism  with  the  idea  of  incar- 
nation, we  regard  it  as  only  showing  this  to  be  a  neces- 
sity of  human  thought,  and  as  far  from  satisfying 
man's  longings  for  union  with  God.  Gautama  Buddha, 
passionless  and  lost  in  the  contemplation  of  his  own 
excellence,  is  not  the  Christian  Redeemer,  who  daily 
bears  our  burdens  and  takes  upon  himself,  in  order 
that  he  may  take  away,  the  sin  of  the  world.  And 


154  A   TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

what  shall  we  say  of  the  other  deities  of  the  Hindu 
pantheon,  but  that  they  are  personifications  of  every 
human  caprice  and  vice.  The  Krishna  of  the  Puranas 
has  infected  all  India  with  his  licentiousness,  and  has 
given  sanction  to  the  worst  forms  of  lust. 

The  growth  of  caste  was  another  result  of  the  loss  of 
a  personal  and  moral  God  and  the  deification  of  his 
works.  Since  all  things  came  to  be  regarded  as  mani- 
festations of  deity,  the  order  of  society  and  its  distinc- 
tions became  fixed.  The  origin  of  caste  is  to  be  found 
in  the  superiority  of  the  Aryan  conqueror  to  the 
Dravidian  aborigines.  The  people  of  light  complexion 
looked  down  on  the  dark-skinned  race,  and  drove  them 
to  the  wall.  Intermarriage  between  the  two  classes  of 
the  population  became  abhorrent  to  the  ruling  class, 
and  all  manner  of  restrictions  were  put  upon  their  in- 
tercourse, till  even  the  shadow  of  the  outcaste  falling 
upon  the  Brahman  brought  contamination.  Let  us  not 
blame  the  Aryan  too  hastily,  for  in  South  Africa  and 
in  our  own  Southern  States  we  see  the  same  denial  that 
God  has  made  of  one  blood  all  the  races  of  men,  and 
the  same  exclusion  of  the  darker  race  from  all  privi- 
leges of  human  brotherhood.  Slave-owners  were 
shocked  when  Abraham  Lincoln  lifted  his  hat  to  salute 
a  negro,  and  Southern  men  protested  when  President 
Roosevelt  entertained  Booker  Washington  at  his  table. 
Christian  proclamation  of  human  brotherhood  con- 
stitutes one  of  the  chief  obstacles  to  the  success  of  the 
gospel  in  India. 

The  low  place  of  woman  and  her  lack  of  education  is 
another  obstacle  which  must  be  removed  if  India  is  to 
profit  by  the  renaissance  of  learning.  This  undervalu- 


THE    RENAISSANCE    IN    INDIA  155 

ing  of  the  physically  weak  is  itself  a  fruit  of  man's 
apostasy  from  God.  And  as  Brahmanism  set  its 
stamp  of  approval  upon  distinctions  of  caste  and  fixed 
them  for  centuries,  so  it  was  with  woman's  posi- 
tion and  influence.  She  was  condemned  to  inferiority. 
She  became  a  mere  instrument  of  man's  pleasure,  or  a 
mere  drudge  in  his  household.  She  never  sat  with  him 
at  his  meals,  but  ate  what  was  left  after  he  had  been 
served;  she  never  walked  by  his  side,  but  always  fol- 
lowed behind,  when  she  was  not  shut  up  in  the  zenana 
at  home.  One  of  the  best  signs  of  a  new  civilization 
in  India  is  the  growing  conviction  among  the  higher 
classes  that  woman  must  be  educated,  if  her  children 
are  to  emerge  from  their  superstitions  and  become  of 
use  in  the  modern  world.  The  suttee  has  been  abolished 
by  law,  but  child-widowhood  yet  remains  to  curse  the 
lives  of  millions.  There  is  no  better  proof  that  Chris- 
tianity is  permeating  society  with  its  influence  than 
is  found  in  the  increasing  number  of  girls  who  are  seek- 
ing education  in  our  mission  schools  and  colleges. 
Pundita  Ramabai  has  become  a  glory  to  her  own  coun- 
trymen, as  much  as  has  Rabindranath  Tagore  by  his 
utterance,  "  The  regeneration  of  the  Indian  people  to 
my  mind,  directly  and  perhaps  solely,  depends  upon  the 
removal  of  this  condition  of  caste."  We  may  add  that 
the  dominion  of  caste  and  the  degradation  of  woman 
will  come  to  an  end  together,  and  nothing  but  Chris- 
tianity will  abolish  them. 

The  renaissance  of  learning  is  not  enough.  A  new 
spirit  of  love  is  needed  to  solve  the  problems  of  India. 
For  there  is  no  country  of  the  world  where  racial  an- 
tagonisms are  so  felt.  Entirely  apart  from  the  distinc- 


156  A   TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

tions  of  caste,  which  are  racial  in  their  origin,  there 
is  the  distinction  of  Hindu  from  Mohammedan,  which 
has  its  origin  in  religion.  Remember  that,  of  India's 
population,  sixty-five  millions  are  Moslems,  while  one 
hundred  and  eighty  millions  are  Hindus.  The  Hindu 
men  of  caste  cannot  help  paying  some  respect  to  the 
Mohammedans,  for  they  are  compelled  to  acknowledge 
their  financial  and  executive  power,  just  as  they  ac- 
knowledge, without  admiring,  the  power  of  their  Brit- 
ish rulers.  They  cannot  treat  Moslems  as  outcastes,  but 
they  will  not  associate  with  them;  and  they  cherish  a 
settled  antipathy  to  them.  All  this  the  Mohammedans 
heartily  reciprocate.  English  policy  has  in  times  past 
cultivated  this  mutual  dislike,  lest  union  between  the 
two  religious  sects  should  lead  to  the  formation  of  a 
party  too  strong  for  British  rule  to  keep  in  subjection. 
One  religion  has  been  used  to  defeat  the  influence  of  the 
other.  Of  late  years  only  has  it  been  true  that  both 
have  been  forced  to  recognize  the  impartial  justice  of 
British  rule;  and  this  recognition  has  been  gained  by 
the  gradual  admission  of  able  men  from  both  parties 
to  many  important  judicial  and  administrative  positions 
in  the  Indian  government.  But  the  antagonism  of 
religions  still  remains,  and  it  constitutes  a  most  serious 
bar  in  the  way  of  a  united  India. 

There  are  signs  of  an  approaching  reformation  in 
India  which  will  supplement  its  intellectual  renaissance. 
Just  as  the  growing  power  of  Christianity  in  the  second 
and  third  centuries  of  our  era  was  shown  by  the  com- 
petition of  new  and  imitative  religions  like  that  of 
Mithra,  and  by  spasmodic  attempts  on  the  part  of  the 


THE    RENAISSANCE    IN    INDIA  157 

old  heathenism  to  interpret  its  mythology  symbolically 
and  to  reform  its  moral  practice;  just  as  the  growing 
power  of  the  gospel  in  the  fifteenth  century  led  the 
Roman  Church  to  slough  off  some  of  its  abuses  and  to 
tolerate  among  its  adherents  reformers  before  the 
Reformation;  so  in  India  the  new  learning  from  the 
West  and  the  missionary  proclamation  of  the  gospel 
have  brought  about  a  state  of  religious  unrest  which 
could  only  be  allayed  by  efforts  on  the  part  of  Hindus 
and  Moslems  alike  to  interpret  their  faiths  more  ration- 
ally and  to  prove  that  these  faiths  were  equal  if  not 
superior  to  Christianity  itself.  The  Brahmo-Somaj, 
which  Ram  Mohun  Roy  founded  at  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  largely  as  a  result  of  his  horror  at 
the  murder  of  his  sister  by  suttee,  has  led  to  the  aboli- 
tion of  that  cruelty.  Ram  Mohun  Roy  sought  to  purge 
Hinduism  of  its  corruptions  by  appealing  to  its  earlier 
and  purer  scriptures.  He  was  the  first  to  establish  a 
vernacular  press  in  India,  and,  with  Alexander  Duff, 
the  first  English  schools.  Though  he  did  not  formally 
profess  Christianity,  he  studied  our  Christian  Scrip- 
tures, acknowledged  their  value  and  influence,  and 
published  a  book  entitled  "  The  Precepts  of  Jesus." 

Another  Hindu  who  exerted  great  influence  during 
the  half-century  just  passed  was  Keshub  Chunder 
Sen.  He  passionately  adored  Christ  as  his  true  Master. 
Yet  he  was  practically  Unitarian,  and  his  later  years 
belied  the  promise  of  his  brilliant  beginnings.  Though 
a  member  of  the  Brahmo-Somaj,  he  split  the  body  in 
two  by  his  violation  of  its  prohibition  of  child-mar- 
riage, and  wasted  his  strength  in  attempts  to  combine 
Western  rationalism  with  the  ecstatic  fervors  of  the 


158  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

East.  As  the  result,  the  Brahmo-Somaj  has  declined, 
until  in  numbers  and  influence  it  has  now  hardly  more 
than  five  thousand  adherents  in  all  India.  Mozumdar 
was  one  of  its  representatives  who  sought  to  give 
Oriental  interpretation  of  Jesus,  but  one  without  ethical 
or  saving  power.  The  Arya-Samaj  is  a  more  consistent 
effort  to  reform  Hindu  religion  by  bringing  it  back  to 
the  purer  standards  of  the  Vedas.  Swami  Dayanand 
was  the  founder  of  the  society.  He  was  led  to  re- 
nounce idolatry  by  seeing  a  mouse  eat  food  offered  to 
an  idol  and  run  without  hindrance  over  the  idol's  robes 
and  hands.  Of  all  the  reforming  bodies,  the  Arya- 
Samaj  most  retains  the  confidence  of  the  masses  in  the 
north  of  India.  But  its  tenets  are  not  acceptable  to  the 
educated  classes  of  the  south,  and  it  needs  a  further 
infusion  of  both  science  and  religion. 

Thus  far  we  have  treated  only  of  Hindu  progress. 
A  word  must  be  said  of  progress  among  the  Moslem 
population  of  India.  Here  the  Aligarh  Movement  de- 
mands attention.  Sir  Seyd  Ahmad  Khan  was  its 
leader.  He  was  of  noble  family,  entered  the  English 
service,  and  took  part  with  the  British  in  crushing  the 
mutiny  of  1857.  When  the  Mohammedan  population 
afterward  fell  under  suspicion,  he  gathered  round  him 
a  company  of  liberal  young  men  and  sought  by  educa- 
tional means  to  bridge  the  gulf  between  Moslem  and 
English.  He  claimed  that  British  rule  in  India  repre- 
sented Christian  civilization,  and  that  this  is  no  enemy 
to  Islam,  but  only  its  complement  and  helper.  He  saw 
that  only  religion  could  heal  the  breach  and  rescue 
Islam  from  decline.  He  founded  the  Aligarh  College 
in  Delhi,  and  devoted  himself  to  the  cultivation  of 


THE    RENAISSANCE    IX    INDIA  159 

friendliness,  not  only  between  Moslem  and  English,  but 
also  between  Moslem  and  Hindu.  This  college  is  one 
of  the  strongest  educational  forces  in  North  India. 

Returning  to  Hindu  progress,  we  mark  the  work  of 
such  men  as  the  Swami  Vivekananda.  It  will  be  re- 
membered that  he  represented  India  at  our  Chicago 
Parliament  of  Religions,  where  Joseph  Cook  challenged 
the  priests  of  the  Orient  to  answer  Lady  Macbetlrs 
question,  "  Who  shall  cleanse  this  red  right  hand  ?  " 
Vivekananda  sought  to  blend  Christian  philanthropy 
with  the  Vedantic  philosophy.  Identity  with  the 
Supreme  is  to  be  attained,  not  only  by  passive  contem- 
plation, but  also  by  active  unselfish  service.  But  this 
truth  was  mixed  with  strange  interpretations  of  Scrip- 
ture. Jesus'  declaration,  "  I  and  my  Father  are  one/' 
was  made  to  mean,  "  Every  man  and  woman  is  God." 
And  Vivekananda  was  quite  willing  himself  to  be  wor- 
shiped. His  fundamental  error,  indeed,  was  his  lack 
of  the  sense  of  sin.  He  said  to  his  audience  in  Chicago : 
"  The  Hindus  refuse  to  call  you  sinners.  Ye  divinities 
on  earth,  sinners?  It  is  a  sin  to  call  a  man  so.  It  is 
a  standing  libel  on  human  nature."  Yet,  in  spite  of  this 
deification  of  self  and  of  all  humanity,  he  did  much 
to  inspire  pity  for  the  poor,  to  awaken  India  to  self- 
consciousness,  and  to  give  hope  of  national  unity. 

We  must  not  ignore  the  work  of  The  Theosophical 
Society,  though  it  has  made  a  name  for  itself  more  in 
Europe  and  America  than  in  India.  While  it  has  done 
something  to  encourage  education  and  to  teach  modern 
science,  it  has  used  the  knowledge  thus  given  as  an 
instrument  in  defending  superstition.  The  immoralities 
of  Krishna  are  discussed  and  palliated  in  Mrs.  Besant's 


l6o  A    TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

Magazine  for  the  instruction  of  young  students. 
Charms,  incantations,  astrology,  idolatry,  caste,  are  all 
woven  into  the  system,  for  the  sake  of  propitiating  the 
Indian  mind,  so  that  its  influence  is  hostile  to  Chris- 
tianity and  to  missions.  Idols  are  to  be  worshiped 
because  they  are  "  centers  of  magnetism."  In  England 
Mrs.  Besant  predicts  a  second  advent  of  Christ.  But 
in  India  this  becomes  a  new  avatar  of  Krishna.  In 
spite  of  her  stout  denunciation  of  child-marriages  and 
her  inculcation  of  modern  science,  her  propaganda  has 
not  been  so  much  a  reform  of  Indian  religion,  as  it  has 
been  a  hindrance  to  reform.  Hindu  devotees  indeed 
have  eulogized  her  for  what  they  call  her  successful 
opposition  to  the  proselyting  efforts  of  Christian  mis- 
sionaries. 

And  yet,  even  the  Theosophical  Society,  with  all  its 
absurdities  of  levitation  and  the  astral  body,  has  been 
compelled  to  bear  some  witness  to  Jesus  Christ.  He 
is  "  the  light  that  lighteth  every  man,"  and  he  has 
given  even  to  this  system  some  elements  of  truth.  We 
do  not  hesitate  to  recognize  the  truth  that  Buddha  and 
Confucius,  taught,  and  to  regard  it  as  a  ray  of  Christ's 
light  shed'  forth  before  the  rising  of  the  sun.  And  it 
is  our  privilege  to  conclude  our  list  of  Hindu  reformers 
with  the  name  of  Justice  Renade,  who  recognized  in 
Christ  the  source  of  all  former  revelations  of  God. 

Justice  Renade,  in  his  social  reform  movement  of  the 
last  fifty  years,  has  carried  the  spirit  of  philanthropy 
into  practice,  more  fully  than  did  Vivekanancla  or  Mrs. 
Besant,  and  without  any  of  their  fantastic  self-exalta- 
tion. Renade  recognized  the  elements  of  truth  in  both 
the  Hindu  and  Moslem  systems,  and  he  saw  in  Chris- 


THE   RENAISSANCE   IN    INDIA  l6l 

tianity  the  influence  destined  to  unite  them.  He  would 
not  throw  away  the  old,  but  he  would  utilize  it  while 
he  added  the  new.  And  with  this  acknowledgment  that 
"  he  who  is  not  against  us  is  on  our  side,"  we  may  well 
close  our  sketch  of  reformers  before  the  reformation. 
We  sum  up  the  lessons  of  history  when  we  recognize 
in  Hinduism  the  two  great  ideas  of  divine  immanence 
and  incarnation,  in  Mohammedanism  the  two  equally 
essential  truths  of  divine  transcendence  and  personality. 
And  we  see  the  absolute  dependence  of  India  upon 
Christianity  for  its  true  Reformation.  India  needs  the 
missionary  more  than  she  needs  the  schoolmaster.  Let 
us  pray  that  she  may  have  a  religious  revival  that  shall 
turn  the  intellectual  awakening  into  moral  channels. 
That  religious  revival  will  furnish  a  center  of  unity 
in  Christ,  the  one  and  only  Revealer  of  God ;  not  in  a 
Hindu  philosophy,  nor  in  a  Moslem  Koran,  but  in  a 
living  Person,  present  with  all  his  people,  the  soul  of 
their  soul  and  the  life,  and  imparting  to  them  his  own 
Spirit  of  love  and  brotherhood.  In  Christ  alone  can 
India's  renaissance  become  a  complete  reformation. 


XV 
MISSIONS  AND  SCRIPTURE 


MISSIONS  AND  SCRIPTURE 


THE  world  of  scholars  has  recently  been  startled 
by  the 'pretended  discovery  that  the  •"  Great  Commis- 
sion," "  Go  ye  therefore,  and  make  disciples  of  all  the 
nations,"  is  not  an  utterance  of  Jesus  himself,  but  only 
one  attributed  to  him  by  some  enthusiastic  follower  of 
his  in  a  later  time.  This  pretended  discovery  is  on 
a  par  with  the  earlier  one  that  there  never  was  such  a 
person  as  Jesus  at  all,  but  that  his  personality  is  simply 
a  myth  that  gradually  grew  up  in  the  minds  of  some 
Jewish  fanatics  who  sought  a  fulfilment  of  Messianic 
prophecy.  We  might  treat  these  perverse  and  sub- 
versive conclusions  as  only  curious  instances  of  a 
wrong  method  of  criticism.  But  they  filter  down  from 
the  scholars  to  the  masses  of  Christian  believers  and 
weaken  their  faith.  It  becomes  a  duty  to  deal  with 
the  method  which  leads  to  such  results,  and  threatens 
to  destroy  all  our  missionary  zeal.  Hence  I  pro- 
ceed to  test  the  value  of  the  method  itself,  even  though 
it  is  commonly  called  "  the  historical  method "  by 
those  who  adopt  it.  If  we  can  bear  a  somewhat 
roundabout  way  of  treating  the  subject,  we  shall  gain 
a  new  and  valuable  light  upon  our  missionary  theory 
and  practice. 

To  prevent  misunderstanding,  however,  I  must 
premise  that  it  is  the  historical  method  as  frequently 
employed,  and  not  the  historical  method  as  it  ought  to 

165 


1 66  A   TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

be,  to  which  I  offer  my  objections.  My  criticism  is 
directed  against  the  historical  method,  only  when  it 
assumes  to  be  the  exclusive  means  of  attaining  truth, 
follows  the  methods  of  physical  science,  and  ignores 
the  far  more  important  material  for  religious  use  which 
is  furnished  by  intuition  and  revelation.  The  phrase 
"  historical  method  "  has  come  to  imply  much  that 
does  not  properly  belong  to  it.  I  criticize  only  its  fre- 
quent exclusiveness  and  exaggeration.  And  I  do  this, 
as  I  think,  in  the  interest  of  true  science. 

There  are  two  methods  of  reasoning  possible,  in  this 
case  or  in  any  other  case,  and  there  are  only  two — I 
mean  the  deductive,  and  the  inductive.  I  make  no 
mention  of  argument  from  analogy,  for  that  proceeds 
upon  a  deductive  basis,  presuming  that  there  is  a  de- 
signed order  in  the  world  which  makes  analogy  pos- 
sible. The  deductive  method  argues  from  the  uni- 
versal to  the  particular,  from  the  higher  to  the  lower, 
from  God  to  man.  The  inductive  method,  on  the  other 
hand,  argues  from  the  particular  to  the  universal,  from 
the  lower  to  the  higher,  from  man  to  God.  Both  of 
these  methods  are  correct  when  each  is  taken  in  con- 
nection with  the  other.  Much  depends,  however,  upon 
the  question  which  is  taken  first.  Shall  we  begin  with 
the  particular,  leaving  out  for  the  time  all  thought  of 
the  universal?  There  is  danger  that  induction  will 
come  to  be  regarded  as  itself  sufficient  to  lead  us  into 
the  truth.  This  is  a  serious  error,  for  correct  induc- 
tion presupposes  deduction,  and  therefore  deduction 
should  be  the  guiding  principle  and  safeguard  of  in- 
duction. If  this  is  forgotten,  induction  may  go  fear- 
fully astray. 


MISSIONS   AND   SCRIPTURE  167 

To  make  my  meaning  still  more  plain,  let  me  say 
that  in  our  investigations  we  need  a  comprehensive 
method,  a  method  that  will  look  at  facts  from  more 
than  one  point  of  view.  A  truly  historical  method  will 
look  at  facts  from  above,  as  well  as  from  each  side, 
and  so  the  deductive  process  may  be  popularly  de- 
scribed as  vertical.  The  historical  method  falsely  so 
called  errs  in  confining  its  view  to  what  can  be  seen 
immediately  around  it,  and  so  its  process  is  exclusively 
horizontal.  Deduction  begins  vertically,  and  makes 
that  which  comes  from  above  to  be  its  guide  and  stand- 
ard in  all  inductive  work.  Induction  begins  horizon- 
tally, and  tends  to  become  self-sufficient,  until  all  light 
from  above  seems  untrustworthy  and  useless.  For 
example,  take  the  study  of  nature.  If  one  begins,  in- 
ductively and  horizontally,  with  mere  physical  and 
material  order,  instead  of  beginning,  deductively  and 
vertically,  with  man's  higher  powers  of  conscience  and 
will,  he  will  end  by  finding  only  impersonal  force  in 
the  universe,  and  by  practically  deifying  it,  as  the 
Hindus  deified  Brahma.  Begin  rightly,  and,  with  due 
care  in  the  application  of  the  deductive  principle,  he 
will  come  to  right  conclusions.  There  are  certain 
truths  which  cannot  be  reached  by  induction.  They 
are  known  by  intuition,  long  before  induction  begins. 
The  most  fundamental  of  these  truths  is  the  truth  of 
God's  existence.  A  Power  above  us,  which  has  moral 
perfection,  and  which  claims  our  obedience,  is  revealed 
to  every  man  by  conscience.  Begin  with  this  knowl- 
edge, and  to  the  obedient  spirit  the  physical  world 
seems  ablaze  with  evidences  of  wisdom  and  love;  the 
regularities  of  nature  are  recognized  as  God's  methods 


l68  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

of  ordinary  operation ;  evolution  is  only  his  usual  plan 
of  growth  and  progress;  in  other  words,  God's  tran- 
scendence is  manifest  as  well  as  his  immanence,  his 
personality  as  well  as  his  revelation  in  the  forces  of 
the  universe. 

Man  is  a  theist,  before  he  becomes  a  Christian. 
Theism  is  a  universal  intuition,  ready  to  assert  itself 
in  practice  wherever  it  is  not  prevented  by  an  evil  will 
from  its  normal  manifestation.  But,  because  man  is 
in  an  abnormal  condition,  this  normal  action  of  his 
powers  can  be  restored  only  by  the  Holy  Spirit. 
"  When  he  is  come,"  says  our  Lord,  "  he  will  convince 
the  world  of  sin,  because  they  believe  not  on  me,"  and 
"  of  righteousness,  because  I  go  unto  the  Father." 
Only  when  the  prodigal  repented,  did  he  "  come  to 
himself,"  and  begin  to  act  normally.  Under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Spirit,  God's  holiness  reveals  to  man 
his  sin,  and  God's  love  leads  him  to  the  feet  of  Jesus. 
This  is  the  first  step  in  Christian  experience.  To  put 
my  doctrine  unmistakably  and  in  a  nutshell,  deduc- 
tion from  the  existence  of  God  normally  precedes  and 
insures  the  acceptance  of  Christ.  The  sinner  comes 
to  have  personal  knowledge  of  One  who  has  atoned, 
and  therefore  can  forgive.  But  to  him  who  has  ac- 
cepted Christ,  his  Lord  is  more  than  a  historical  Re- 
deemer, he  is  a  present  Saviour  from  both  the  penalty 
and  the  power  of  sin.  Without  this  personal  knowledge 
of  Christ,  we  might  think  of  him  as  only  one  of 
many  human  examples  or  teachers,  like  Confucius  or 
Buddha.  Now,  he  is  nothing  less  than  God  mani- 
fest in  the  flesh,  omnipresent,  omniscient,  omnipotent, 
whom  having  seen  we  have  seen  the  Father. 


MISSIONS    AND    SCRIPTURE  169 

But  there  is  a  second  step  in  Christian  experience, 
which  I  wish  also  to  describe  in  a  nutshell  and  to 
define  as  unmistakably  as  I  described  and  defined  the 
first  I  claim  that  deduction  from  the  existence  of 
Christ  normally  precedes  and  insures  the  acceptance 
of  Scripture.  Our  Lord  himself  has  said,  "  My  sheep 
hear  my  voice."  The  Christian  recognizes  in  Scrip- 
ture the  voice  of  Christ.  No  change  in  his  experience 
is  more  marked  and  wonderful  than  the  change  in  his 
estimate  of  the  Bible.  A  little  time  ago,  Scripture  was 
commonplace  and  unmeaning.  Now  it  speaks  to  him 
with  a  living  voice  such  words  of  instruction  and  com- 
fort, of  warning  and  promise,  that  his  soul  is  filled 
alternately  with  sorrow  and  with  joy.  He  wonders 
that  he  never  saw  these  things  before.  He  perceives 
for  the  first  time  that  he  has  been  in  an  abnormal  con- 
dition of  mind,  and  that  condition  has  been  due  to  his 
own  perversity  of  will.  But  now  the  prodigal  has 
"  come  to  himself."  Only  the  Holy  Spirit  could 
have  made  possible  this  new  and  normal  exercise  of  his 
powers.  The  change  is  not  in  the  Scripture,  it  is  in 
himself.  He  has  come  in  contact  with  a  word  of  God 
that  "  liveth  and  abideth."  He  sees  in  it  the  divine 
workmanship.  He  can  no  longer  regard  Scripture  as 
merely  the  work  of  man;  it  is  also  the  work  of  the 
same  Spirit  who  has  transformed  him,  namely,  the 
eternal  Christ.  Christ  is  the  author  and  inspirer  of 
Scripture,  even  though  imperfect  human  agents  have 
been  employed  to  communicate  his  revelation.  In 
spite  of  the  rudeness  and  diversity  of  the  instruments, 
there  breathes  through  them  all  a  certain  divine  melody 
and  harmony.  While  the  inductive  and  horizontal 


I7O  A    TOUR    OF   THE    MISSIONS 

method  would  give  us  only  finite  and  earthly  truth, 
the  deductive  and  vertical  can  give  us  truth  that  is  in- 
finite and  eternal.  The  indispensable  condition  of  suc- 
cess in  the  interpretation  of  Scripture  is  therefore 
a  hearty  belief  that  the  Bible  is  Christ's  revelation  of 
God,  and  not  merely  a  series  of  gropings  after  truth 
on  the  part  of  men.  Deduction  will  give  us  truth 
from  above,  whereas  induction  will  give  us  only  scat- 
tered facts  on  the  horizontal  plane. 

I  am  convinced  that  the  so-called  "  historical 
method  "  of  Scripture  interpretation,  as  it  is  usually 
employed,  fails  to  secure  correct  results,  because  it  pro- 
ceeds wholly  by  induction,  leaving  out  of  its  account 
the  knowledge  of  Christ  which  comes  to  the  Chris- 
tian in  his  personal  experience.  I  do  not  regard  such 
a  "  historical  method  "  as  really  historical ;  I  deny  that 
it  discovers  the  original  meaning  of  the  documents;  I 
claim  that,  when  made  the  sole  avenue  of  approach 
to  truth,  it  leads  to  false  views  of  doctrine.  It  assumes 
at  the  outset  that  what  rules  in  the  realm  of  physics 
rules  also  in  the  moral  and  religious  realm.  But  the 
Christian  has  learned  that  Christ  is  the  supreme  source 
of  truth.  By  a  process  of  either  conscious  or  uncon- 
scious deduction  he  recognizes  in  Scripture  the  utter- 
ance of  Christ.  He  must  begin  his  investigations  with 
one  of  two  assumptions :  Is  the  Bible  only  man's  word  ? 
or,  Is  it  also  Christ's  word?  Is  it  a  mere  product 
of  human  intelligence?  or,  Is  it  also  the  product  of 
a  divine  intelligence,  who  indeed  uses  human  and 
imperfect  means  of  communication,  but  who  never- 
theless at  sundry  times  and  in  divers  manners  has 
brought  to  the  world  the  knowledge  of  salvation? 


MISSIONS    AND    SCRIPTURE  I/ 1 

I  claim  that  we  should  begin  by  assuming  that  the 
Bible  is  a  revelation  of  Christ  This  assertion  is 
justified,  as  I  have  already  intimated,  by  our  Chris- 
tian experience.  That  experience  has  given  us  a 
knowledge  of  the  heart,  more  valuable  in  religious 
things  than  any  mere  knowledge  of  the  intellect.  Doc- 
tor Tholuck,  in  an  address  to  his  students  at  his  fiftieth 
anniversary,  said  that  God's  greatest  gift  to  him  had 
been  the  knowledge  of  sin.  Without  that  conviction 
of  sin  which  the  Spirit  of  Christ  can  work  in  the 
human  heart,  there  can  be  no  proper  understanding  of 
Scripture,  for  Scripture  is  a  revelation  to  sinners.  The 
opening  of  the  heart  to  receive  Christ,  and  the  new 
sense  of  his  pardoning  grace  and  power,  give  to  the 
converted  man  the  key  to  the  interpretation  of  Scrip- 
ture, for  "  the  mystery  of  the  gospel,"  the  central 
secret  of  Christianity,  is  "  Christ  in  you,  the  hope  of 
glory.''  He  whom  the  Holy  Spirit  has  first  led  to 
the  knowledge  of  sin,  and  has  then  led  to  the  accep- 
tance of  Christ,  is  prepared  to  enter  into  the  meaning 
of  Scripture,  and  no  other  man  can  understand  it. 

This  was  the  way  in  which  Paul  came  to  understand 
Scripture.  It  was  not  by  criticism  of  the  documents, 
but  by  receiving  Christ,  that  "  the  light  of  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  glory  of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ  " 
entered  into  his  soul.  He  knew  himself  to  be  the 
chief  of  sinners.  He  knew  Christ  as  his  manifested 
God  and  Saviour.  He  applied  to  Christ  all  that  the 
Old  Testament  had  revealed  with  regard  to  the  deal- 
ings of  God  with  his  chosen  people.  The  light  that 
shone  upon  him  on  the  way  to  Damascus  was  the  She- 
kinah  that  led  Israel  in  the  pillar  of  cloud  by  day  and 


A   TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

of  fire  by  night,  that  dwelt  over  the  mercy-seat  in  the 
tabernacle  and  in  the  temple,  and  that  thundered  and 
lightened  from  Sinai  in  the  giving  of  the  Law.  "  The 
Rock  that  followed  them "  in  the  wilderness,  and 
gave  water  to  the  thirsty,  "  that  Rock  was  Christ." 
And  so  Paul  came  to  know  Jesus  Christ  as  preexistent 
and  omnipresent,  as  Redeemer  of  the  whole  world, 
Gentile  as  well  as  Jew ;  and  Christ's  Cross  became  the 
embodiment  and  symbol  of  God's  amazing  sorrow  for 
human  sin,  and  of  his  sacrifice  for  its  cure.  All  Paul's 
later  conclusions  were  developments  and  expressions 
of  his  initial  knowledge  of  Christ.  It  was  a  deductive 
and  not  an  inductive  process,  by  which  he  arrived  at 
his  theology. 

Lest  any  Christian  should  say  that  the  deductive 
method  is  impracticable  to  him,  for  the  reason  that 
he  has  had  no  such  revelation  of  Christ  to  start 
from  as  that  which  was  given  to  Paul,  Scripture 
reports  to  us  the  very  different  experience  of  an- 
other apostle.  I  refer  to  Peter.  Peter  shows  us  how, 
by  this  same  deductive  method,  an  experience  which  at 
its  beginning  is  very  small,  may  in  the  end  become 
very  great.  Peter  goes  to  the  banks  of  Jordan,  a 
sinner,  seeking  pardon  for  his  sin.  John  the  Bap- 
tist points  him  to  Jesus,  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God, 
who  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world."  Peter  knows 
nothing  of  Jesus'  deity,  nor  of  his  atonement.  But, 
by  an  instinct  which  is  the  best  of  logic,  he  is  drawn 
to  Jesus,  as  the  one  who  can  satisfy  his  needs.  He 
becomes  a  Christian,  that  is,  a  follower  of  Jesus.  His 
experience  is  a  sort  of  caterpillar;  it  can  creep,  but  it 
cannot  soar.  Yet  all  the  elements  of  growth  are  in  it. 


MISSIONS   AND   SCRIPTURE  173 

Peter  begins  to  analyze  it.  What  right  has  he  to  sur- 
render himself,  body  and  soul,  to  a  man  like  him- 
self? The  answer  is:  Jesus  is  more  than  man.  At 
Caesarea  Philippi,  Peter  cries,  "  Thou  art  the  Christ, 
the  son  of  the  living  God."  On  the  day  of  Pentecost, 
he  preaches  Christ  as  the  Saviour  exalted  to  God's 
right  hand.  And  finally,  in  his  Epistles,  he  declares 
the  preexistence  of  Christ,  and  the  fact  of  Christ's  ut- 
terances through  the  prophets  as  far  back  in  time  as 
the  days  of  Noah.  If  our  higher  critics  only  adopted 
Peter's  method,  analyzed  their  own  experience,  follow- 
ing on  to  know  their  Lord  and  meantime  willing  to  do 
his  will,  they  too,  like  Peter,  in  spite  of  small  begin- 
nings, would  learn  of  Jesus'  doctrine,  would  emerge 
from  the  caterpillar  state,  would  be  soaring  instead  of 
creeping,  and  would  end  by  gladly  confessing  that 
he  who  met  them  on  the  way  in  their  first  experience 
was  none  other  than  the  omnipresent  Christ,  whom 
Paul  describes  as  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  in  whom 
dwelleth  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  bodily.  They 
would  also  learn,  with  Peter,  that  Scripture  is  the  work 
and  word  of  the  preexistent  Christ. 

Because  this  experience  of  sin  and  of  Christ  is  knowl- 
edge, it  is  material  for  science,  for  science  is  only 
unified  knowledge.  I  do  not  deny  that  it  is  knowledge 
peculiar  to  the  Christian.  The  princes  of  physics  and 
literature  and  government  have  not  known  it.  It  is 
not  the  wisdom  of  this  world,  but  it  is  better,  even 
the  very  wisdom  of  God.  I  glory  in  Christian  the- 
ology, as  the  science  that  will  last,  when  all  systems 
of  merely  physical  science  have  passed  away.  For  the 
man  who  has  been  saved  by  Christ  has  knowledge  of 


174  A   TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

him  who  is  Creator,  Upholder,  and  Life  of  all.  I  do 
not  hesitate  to  say  that  the  only  safe  interpreter  of 
physical  nature  is  the  true  Christian,  for  it  is  Christ 
"  in  whom  all  things  consist."  The  true  Christian  is 
the  only  safe  interpreter  of  history,  for  it  is  Christ 
who  "  upholds  all  things  by  the  word  of  his  power." 
And  so,  the  true  Christian  is  the  only  safe  interpreter 
of  Scripture,  for  it  is  Christ  whose  Spirit  in  the 
prophets  "  testified  beforehand  of  his  sufferings,  and  of 
the  glories  that  should  follow  them."  In  him  who  is 
the  Lord  of  all  "  are  all  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and 
knowledge  hidden."  Only  when  one  is  joined  to 
Christ,  can  he  understand  the  evolutionary  process 
through  which  Christ  has  led  the  human  race,  or  under- 
stand the  Bible  which  constitutes  the  historical  record 
of  that  process.  With  the  Psalmist  we  may  say,  "  In 
thy  light  shall  we  see  light." 

As  Christ  is  the  central  object  of  knowledge  in 
Christian  experience,  it  follows  that  Christians  recog- 
nize him  as  the  primary  author  of  Scripture.  They 
find  him  speaking  to  them  in  the  Bible,  as  in  no  other 
book.  It  becomes  to  them  the  word  of  God,  given  by 
divine  inspiration,  and  able  to  make  them  wise  unto 
salvation.  From  the  deity  and  supremacy  of  Christ 
they  proceed  to  faith  in  the  unity,  the  sufficiency,  and 
the  authority  of  Scripture,  and  this  determines  their 
method  of  investigation.  From  the  person  of  Christ 
to  the  word  of  Christ  is  a  process  often  unconscious, 
but  one  better  than  any  process  of  formal  logic.  Know- 
ing their  divine  Saviour,  they  know  the  divinity  of 
his  word.  His  presence  in  human  history  and  in  the 
hearts  of  the  righteous  has  given  unity  to  his  continu- 


MISSIONS    AND    SCRIPTURE  175 

ous  revelation.  The  Scripture  "  cannot  be  broken," 
or  interpreted  as  a  promiscuous  congeries  of  separate 
bits;  for  a  divine  intelligence  and  life  throb  through 
the  whole  collection.  Like  railway  coupons,  its  texts 
are  "  not  good  if  detached."  We  must  interpret  each 
text  by  its  context,  each  part  by  the  whole,  the  prep- 
aration of  salvation  by  the  fulfilment,  and  all  the 
diverse  contents  by  him  who  weaves  all  together,  even 
Christ,  the  end  of  the  law,  to  whom  all  the  prelimi- 
naries point.  This  method  gives  room  for  the  most 
thorough  investigation  of  the  times  and  ways  of  reve- 
lation, for  recognizing  the  imperfection  of  beginnings 
and  the  variety  of  the  product.  The  Bible  is  a 
gradually  accumulated  literature,  Hebraic  in  form,  but 
universal  in  spirit.  The  preexistent  Christ  has  made 
all  this  literature  one,  by  the  influence  in  the  -sacred 
writers  of  his  omnipresent  Spirit.  If  the  "  historical 
method  "  would  begin  with  this  postulate  of  a  unifying 
Christ,  its  method  would  be  more  safe  and  its  results 
more  sure. 

Faith  in  an  eternal  and  omnipresent  Christ  guaran- 
tees also  the  sufficiency  of  Scripture.  Here,  however, 
there  is  an  obvious  limitation.  Scripture  is  not  suf- 
ficient for  all  the  kinds  and  purposes  of  human  science. 
It  will  not  tell  us  the  configuration  of  the  hinder  side 
of  the  moon,  nor  reveal  the  future  uses  of  electricity. 
It  is  not  with  such  things  that  Scripture  deals.  But 
in  religious  matters,  such  as  our  relation  to  God  and 
salvation,  it  is  sufficient  as  a  rule  of  faith  and  practice. 
We  may  find  in  it  all  needful  models  and  helps  in 
the  divine  life,  as  well  as  all  needful  directions  about 
the  way  to  begin  it.  The  church  of  Christ  has  always 


176  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

found  in  the  Bible  a  safe  guide  for  her  polity  and  con- 
duct, and  civil  government  has  prospered  when  the 
principles  of  Scripture  were  followed  by  the  powers 
that  ruled  the  State.  Because  the  Christian  believes 
the  Bible  to  be  the  product  of  men  inspired  by  Christ, 
he  can  send  it  out  by  the  million  copies  as  equal  to 
the  moral  and  spiritual  needs  of  the  world. 

And  because  Christ  is,  through  his  imperfect  agents, 
the  real  author  of  Scripture,  we  believe  in  its  absolute 
authority.  When  rightly  interpreted,  however.  It 
will  never  do  to  treat  poetry  as  if  it  were  prose,  or 
drama  as  if  it  \vere  history,  or  allegory  as  if  it  were 
fact.  Christ  can  use,  and  he  has  used,  all  the  com- 
mon methods  of  literary  composition,  and  he  expects 
us  to  use  common  sense  in  dealing  with  them.  But 
out  of  the  whole  can  be  evolved  a  consistent  doc- 
trine and  an  authoritative  law.  The  one  and  only 
way  of  salvation  is  plainly  that  of  faith  in  God's  pro- 
vision of  pardon  and  life  in  Christ.  In  spite  of  many 
divergences,  the  great  body  of  Christians  throughout 
the  ages  have  agreed  in  their  recognition  of  the  per- 
sonality and  the  deity  of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the 
Holy  Spirit;  of  the  incarnation  and  the  atonement  of 
Christ;  of  his  resurrection  and  his  lordship;  of  his 
omnipresence  with  his  people  even  to  the  end  of  the 
world.  They  have  expressed  this  agreement  in  the 
Apostles'  Creed  and  in  the  hymnology  of  the  church. 
But  the  great  body  of  instructed  Christians  also  be- 
lieve in  Christ  as  the  Revealer  of  God  in  nature  and  in 
history;  as  "the  Light  that  lighteth  every  man"  in 
conscience  and  tradition;  and  as  the  righteous  Judge 
who  accepts  in  every  nation  those  who  fear  God  and 


MISSIONS   AND    SCRIPTURE  1 77 

work  righteousness,  casting  themselves  as  sinners  upon 
the  divine  mercy  even  though  they  do  not  yet  know 
that  this  divine  mercy  is  only  another  name  for  Christ. 
The  Bible,  as  a  whole  and  when  rightly  interpreted,  is 
absolute  authority,  because  it  is  the  word  of  Christ; 
and  Christ  holds  each  of  us,  as  individuals,  to  the  duty 
and  the  privilege  of  interpreting  the  Bible  for  himself. 
It  seems  to  me  plain  that  this  method  of  interpret- 
ing Scripture  in  the  light  of  the  Christian's  experi- 
ence of  Christ,  is  not  "  the  historical  method,"  as  it  is 
usually  employed.  This  latter  method  seems  to  ignore 
the  relation  of  Scripture  to  Christ,  and  to  proceed  in 
its  investigations  as  if  there  were  no  preexistent  Christ 
to  furnish  its  principle.  It  insists  upon  treating  Scrip- 
ture as  it  would  treat  any  unreligious  or  heathen 
literature,  and  \vith  no  relation  to  its  divine  author- 
ship. It  sees  in  Scripture  only  a  promiscuous  collec- 
tion of  disjointed  documents,  with  no  living  tie  to 
bind  them  together,  and  no  significance  beyond  that 
of  the  time  in  which  they  were  written.  It  would  treat 
the  Bible  as  a  man-made  book,  or  rather,  as  a  man- 
made  series  of  books,  regardless  of  the  fact  that  the 
plural  "  biblia,'"  which  once  represented  the  thought  of 
the  church,  has,  under  the  influence  of  the  divine 
Spirit,  become  "  biblion  "  or  Bible,  a  singular,  and  a 
proof  that  Christian  consciousness  has  not  been  satis- 
fied with  rationalistic  explanations,  but  has  followed 
its  natural  impulses  by  attributing  unity  to  the  wrord 
of  Christ  its  Saviour.  The  separate  "  words  "  have 
been  felt  to  constitute  the  one  "  word  of  God,"  an  or- 
ganic whole,  which  fitly  represents  the  eternal  "  Word," 
of  whom  it  is  the  voice  and  expression.  Scripture  is 
1C 


A    TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

not  a  congeries  of  earth-born  fragments,  but  an  or- 
ganism, pulsating  with  divine  life.  The  "  historical 
method  "  of  which  I  speak  can  never  find  that  life, 
because  it  works  only  on  the  physical  and  horizontal 
plane,  ignoring  the  light  which  comes  deductively  from 
above,  and  also  the  darkening  and  blinding  influences 
which  often  operate  unconsciously  from  below. 


XVI 
SCRIPTURE  AND  MISSIONS 


SCRIPTURE  AND  MISSIONS 


THE  "historical  method  "  of  Scripture  interpreta- 
tion, as  it  is  often  employed,  ends  without  Christ, 
because  it  begins  without  him.  One  of  its  fundamental 
principles  is  that  each  passage  of  Scripture  is  to  be 
interpreted  solely  in  the  light  of  the  knowledge  and 
intent  of  the  person  who  wrote  it.  The  One  Hundred 
and  Tenth  Psalm,  for  example,  can  have  no  reference 
to  Christ,  because  the  writer  knew  no  other  than  the 
Jewish  king  whose  accession  and  whose  power  he  an- 
ticipates. The  Psalm  reads,  "  Jehovah  said  unto  my 
Lord,  Sit  thou  on  my  right  hand,  until  I  make  thine 
enemies  thy  footstool."  The  so-called  historical  critics 
would  make  any  interpretation  of  this  passage  as  a 
designed  prophecy  of  Christ  to  be  an  unwarranted  ac- 
commodation of  it  to  a  meaning  which  it  did  not 
originally  bear,  and  the  conclusion  is  that  we  are  wrong 
in  citing  these  words  as  an  Old  Testament  assertion 
of  Christ's  deity.  But,  unfortunately  for  this  method 
of  interpretation,  we  have,  in  the  Gospels  of  Matthew 
and  of  Mark,  our  Lord's  own  reference  of  this  pas- 
sage, not  simply  to  some  Jewish  ruler  of  olden  time, 
but  to  the  coming  Messiah,  and  since  he  was  himself 
the  Messiah,  he  refers  it  by  implication  to  himself. 
He  does  not  deny,  but  rather  grants,  a  primary  refer- 
ence of  the  psalm  to  a  son  of  David,  for  David  was 
a  king,  and  his  son  would  be  a  king.  But  he  also  sees 
in  the  psalm  a  prophecy  that  this  son  of  David  would 

181 


l82  A   TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

be  a  king  whom  David  would  call  Lord.  His  search- 
ing examination  propounds  to  the  unbelieving  Jews  the 
question,  "  What  think  ye  of  the  Christ  ?  whose  son 
is  he?"  And  they  say,  "  The  Son  of  David."  He 
answers  them  by  asking,  "  How  then  doth  David, 
in  the  Spirit,  call  him  Lord  ?  "  In  other  words,  in- 
spiration declares  Messiah  to  be  a  King  of  kings,  and 
a  Lord  of  lords.  Since  the  whole  discussion  is  one 
with  regard  to  the  nature  and  claims  of  the  Messiah, 
and  since  the  Messiah  is  not  a  mere  man  like  David, 
but  is  seated  on  the  throne  with  Jehovah  and  is  David's 
Lord,  Christ's  answer  is  an  assertion  of  his  own  deity. 
His  answer  antedates,  even  if  it  did  not  suggest,  Paul's 
later  description  of  Christ,  as  "  declared  to  be  the  Son 
of  God  with  power,  according  to  the  Spirit  of  holiness, 
by  the  resurrection  from  the  dead."  But  the  higher 
critics  differ  in  opinion  from  the  Lord  Jesus.  They  ex- 
tricate themselves  from  their  difficulty  by  suggesting 
that  Jesus,  like  other  men,  was  subject  to  the  errors  of 
his  time.  And  so,  not  only  Christ's  knowledge  of 
Scripture  and  his  authority  as  its  interpreter  are  de- 
nied, but  also  his  knowledge  of  his  own  nature  and 
place  in  the  universe.  If  his  knowledge  of  things  so 
essential  be  denied,  what  trust  can  we  place  in  any 
other  of  his  utterances?  To  those  who  reason  in  this 
way,  Christ  cannot  possibly  be  divine — he  is  only  a 
fallible  man,  self-deceived,  and  so,  deceiving  others. 
The  fault  of  the  critics  lies  in  their  presupposition. 
They  have  begun  wrongly,  by  leaving  out  the  primary 
fact  in  the  subject  they  investigate,  namely,  that  the 
preincarnate  Christ  was  the  author  and  inspirer  of  the 
Scripture  which  he  afterward  interpreted.  He  used 


SCRIPTURE   AND    MISSIONS  183 

human  agents,  with  their  natural  language  and  sur- 
roundings, as  his  instruments,  but  he  could,  on  the 
way  to  Emmaus,  "  beginning  from  Moses  and  all  the 
prophets,"  interpret  to  those  humble  believers  "  in  all 
the  Scriptures  the  things  concerning  himself/'  Scrip- 
ture can  have,  and  it  does  have,  two  authors,  man  and 
God,  the  writer  and  Christ ;  and  to  ignore  Christ  in  the 
evolution  of  the  Bible  is  to  miss  its  chief  meaning,  to 
teach  falsehood  instead  of  truth,  and,  consciously  or 
unconsciously,  to  deny  Christ's  deity. 

Cannot  a  document  have  more  than  one  author? 
What  are  the  facts  in  other  realms  of  art?  In  paint- 
ing, did  not  Landseer  get  Millais  to  paint  the  human 
figure  into  the  picture  of  his  dogs?  In  literature,  is 
there  any  more  acknowledged  fact  than  that  Erck- 
mann-Chatriairs  battle-stories  were  the  work  of  two 
writers,  and  not  of  one  ?  The  work  of  a  single  author 
may  have  two  separate  meanings,  for  Dante  declares 
that  his  Divine  Comedy  has  one  meaning  that  is  per- 
sonal, and  another  meaning  that  is  universal.  Our 
extreme  critics  are  as  poor  students  of  literature  as 
they  are  of  life.  Their  narrowness  of  interpretation  is 
due  to  a  narrowness  of  experience.  If  they  knew 
Christ  better,  they  would  find  in  the  Twenty-third 
Psalm  alone  enough  proof  to  upset  their  theory.  "  The 
Lord  is  my  shepherd,  I  shall  not  want,"  is  an  utterance 
inexplicable  by  merely  human  authorship.  To  sup- 
pose that  even  a  king  of  Israel  who  had  been  a  shep- 
herd-boy could  have  written  this  psalm  without  divine 
inspiration,  in  a  day  when  all  lands  but  little  Palestine 
were  wrapt  in  a  pall  of  heathen  darkness,  is  to  sup- 
pose that  religion  can  exist  and  flourish  without  a  God. 


184  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

:<  The  testimony  of  Jesus,"  says  the  book  of  Reve- 
lation, "  is  the  spirit  of  prophecy."  It  was  the  recog- 
nition of  constant  references  to  Christ  in  the  Old 
Testament,  that  enabled  the  apostles  to  convince  and 
convert  the  unbelieving  Jews.  The  absence  of  this 
recognition  is  the  secret  of  all  the  minimizing  of 
Christ's  attributes  which  is  so  rife  in  our  day.  Do 
men  believe  in  Christ's  deity  who  ignore  his  promise 
to  be  with  them  to  the  end  of  the  world,  and  who  re- 
fuse to  address  him  in  prayer?  Could  one  of  these 
modern  interpreters  have  taken  the  place  of  Philip, 
when  he  met  the  Ethiopian  eunuch?  That  dignitary 
had  been  reading  the  prophecy  of  Isaiah,  "  He  was  led 
as  a  lamb  to  the  slaughter."  "  Of  whom  speaketh  the 
prophet  this?  of  himself,  or  of  some  other?  "  "  And 
Philip  opened  his  mouth,  and  preached  unto  him 
Jesus."  Our  modern  critics  call  this  an  unwarranted 
interpretation,  because  Isaiah  had  no  knowledge  of 
Christ.  And  yet,  John  tells  us  that  "  Isaiah  saw  his 
glory,  and  spake  of  him."  The  critics  contradict  John 
again,  when  they  say  that  we  must  put  no  meaning  into 
Isaiah's  words  but  that  of  his  own  time.  His  great 
prophecy  of  a  suffering  Messiah,  they  say,  had  refer- 
ence only  to  Jehoiachin,  the  captive  king  of  Judah,  or 
to  the  whole  Jewish  nation  as  the  afflicted  people  of 
God.  Philip  and  the  critics  are  evidently  at  variance. 
If  we  accept  their  method,  we  shall  lose  all  reference 
in  the  Old  Testament  to  the  atonement  of  Christ, 
and  all  proof  that  the  sacrifice  on  Calvary  was  that 
of  "  the  Lamb  slain  from  before  the  foundation 
of  the  world."  Reverse  the  process,  and  we  can 
still  say, 


SCRIPTURE   AND    MISSIONS  185 

The  Holy,  meek,  unspotted  Lamb, 
Who  from  the  Father's  bosom  came 
For  me  and  for  my  sins  to  atone, 
Him  for  my  Lord  and  God  I  own. 

It  is  needless  to  multiply  instances  of  this  failure  to 
interpret  the  Old  Testament  aright.  Let  me  call  at- 
tention to  the  effect  of  this  method  upon  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  New  Testament,  for  the  authority  of 
the  Xew  Testament  is  also  undermined.  The  system  of 
typical  interpretation,  which  sees  in  Christ  the  reality 
prefigured  in  Old  Testament  shadows,  is  discredited  as 
unscientific.  The  whole  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  is 
thrown  out,  as  a  poetical  clothing  of  "  the  man  of 
Nazareth "  with  the  fading  glories  of  an  outworn 
worship.  The  idea  that  the  high  priest  of  old  who 
entered  the  Holy  of  Holies  once  a  year  not  without 
blood,  and  the  whole  Jewish  system  of  which  this 
formed  the  central  feature,  were  a  divinely  ordered 
prefiguration  of  Christ's  atoning  sacrifice  for  the  sins 
of  men — this  idea  is  called  a  mere  human  addition  to 
historical  truth.  Christ  is  no  longer  our  great  High 
Priest.  His  priesthood  is  mere  metaphor,  without 
divine  warrant  or  authority.  He  is  not  our  Prophet, 
nor  our  King,  for  his  prophecies  are  not  fulfilled,  and 
his  kingdom  is  only  that  of  a  moral  teacher  and  exam- 
ple. And  all  this,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews  bears  upon  its  front  the  declaration 
that  "  God,  who  in  past  times  spoke  to  the  fathers 
through  the  prophets,  has  in  these  last  days  spoken 
through  his  Son,"  whom  this  same  Epistle  then  pro- 
ceeds to  describe  as  the  effulgence  of  God's  glory  and 
the  very  image  of  his  substance,  the  Creator,  Up- 


l86  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

holder,  and  Redeemer  of  the  world,  the  same  yester- 
day, to-day,  and  forever. 

I  do  not  undervalue  the  historical  method,  when  it 
is  kept  free  from  this  agnostic  presupposition  that  only 
man  is  the  author  of  Scripture.  This  method  has  given 
us  some  information  as  to  the  authorship  of  the 
sacred  books,  and  it  has  in  some  degree  helped  in  their 
interpretation.  I  am  free  to  acknowledge  my  own 
obligation  to  it.  I  grant  the  composite  documentary 
view  of  the  Pentateuch  and  of  its  age-long  days  of 
creation,  while  I  still  hold  to  its  substantially  Mosaic 
authorship.  I  say  this,  however,  with  deference,  for  a 
university  president  of  note,  when  asked  about  the 
stories  of  Cain  and  Abel,  replied  that  no  such  persons 
in  all  probability  ever  lived,  but  that  the  account  was 
still  valuable,  since  it  taught  the  great  moral  lesson 
that  it  is  highly  improper  for  a  man  to  murder  his 
brother!  I  grant  that  there  may  be  more  than  one 
Isaiah,  while  yet  I  see  in  the  later  Isaiah  a  continuance 
of  the  divine  revelation  given  through  the  earlier. 
Any  honest  Christian,  I  would  say,  has  the  right  to 
interpret  Jonah  and  Daniel  as  allegories,  rather  than 
as  histories.  I  can  look  upon  the  book  of  Job  as  a 
drama,  while  I  still  assert  that  Job  was  a  historical 
character.  I  can  see  in  the  Song  of  Solomon  the 
celebration  of  a  pure  human  loye,  while  at  the  same 
time  I  claim  that  the  Song  had  divinely  injected  into 
it  the  meaning  that  union  with  Christ  is  the  goal  and 
climax  of  all  human  passion.  In  short,  I  take  the  his- 
torical method  as  my  servant  and  not  my  master;  as 
partially  but  not  wholly  revealing  the  truth ;  as  show- 
ing me,  not  how  man  made  the  Scripture  for  himself, 


SCRIPTURE    AND    MISSIONS  187 

but  how  God  made  the  Scripture  through  the  imperfect 
agency  of  man.  So  I  find  unity  in  the  Scriptures,  be- 
cause they  are  the  work  of  the  omnipresent  and  om- 
niscient Christ :  I  find  sufficiency  in  the  Scriptures,  be- 
cause they  satisfy  every  religious  need  of  the  individual 
and  of  the  church;  I  find  authority  in  the  Scriptures, 
because,  though  coming  through  man,  they  are,  when 
taken  together  and  rightly  interpreted,  the  veritable 
word  of  God.  I  denounce  the  historical  method,  only 
when  it  claims  to  be  the  solely  valid  method  of  reaching 
truth,  and  so,  leaves  out  the  primary  agency  and  de- 
termining influence  of  Christ. 

\Yhat  sort  of  systematic  theology  is  left  us,  when 
the  perverted  historical  method  is  made  the  only  clue 
to  the  labyrinth  of  Scripture?  There  is  but  one  an- 
swer: No  such  thing  as  systematic  theology  is  pos- 
sible. Science  is  knowledge,  and  to  have  a  system  you 
must  have  unified  knowledge.  The  historical  method 
so  called  can  see  no  unity  in  Scripture,  because  it  does 
not  carry  with  it  the  primary  knowledge  of  Christ.  It 
simply  applies  in  its  investigations  the  principles  of 
physical  science.  Physical  science  begins  with  the  out- 
ward and  visible,  not  with  the  inward  and  spiritual, 
with  matter  and  not  with  mind.  Laplace  swept  the 
heavens  with  his  telescope,  but  he  said  that  he  nowhere 
found  a  God.  He  might  just  as  well  have  swept  his 
kitchen  with  a  broom,  and  then  complained  that  he 
could  not  find  God  there.  God  is  not  stars,  nor  dust. 
God  is  spirit,  and  he  is  not  to  be  apprehended  by  the 
senses.  Laplace  should  have  taken  man's  conscience 
and  will  for  his  starting-point.  And  just  as  physical 
science  can  find  no  God  in  the  universe  by  the  use 


A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

of  the  forceps  and  the  microscope,  so  this  historical 
method  can  find  no  Christ  in  the  Scriptures,  because  it 
looks  there  for  only  human  agency.  The  result  is  that 
it  finds  only  a  collection  of  seemingly  contradictory 
fragments,  with  no  divine  Spirit  to  harmonize  them 
and  bind  them  together.  Its  method  is  purely  induc- 
tive, whereas  its  induction  should  always  be  guided 
by  a  knowledge  of  Christ,  gained  before  investigation 
begins,  and  furnishing  the  basis  for  a  deductive  process 
as  well.  Differentiation  and.  not  harmonization  is  its 
rule,  and  this  makes  its  criticism  destructive  rather 
than  constructive.  Many  a  passage  is  set  aside,  be- 
cause it  will  not  fit  in  with  a  skeptical  interpretation. 
Christ's  own  words  with  .regard  to  his  being  "  a 
ransom  for  many,"  and  with  regard  to  his  having  "  all 
power  committed  to  him  in  heaven  and  in  earth,"  are 
held  to  be  later  words  attributed  to  him  by  his  follow- 
ers. The  whole  New  Testament  story  comes  to  be 
regarded  as  a  mythical  growth,  like  that  which  gradu- 
ally placed  haloes  about  the  heads  of  the  apostles. 
The  Gospel  of  John  is  not  accepted  as  historical,  but 
is  said  to  be  a  work  of  the  second  century.  Jesus, 
it  is  said,  never  himself  claimed  to  be  the  Messiah, 
since  it  is  only  John  who  reports  his  saying  to  the 
woman  of  Samaria,  "  I  that  speak  unto  thee  am  he." 
Paul  is  set  aside,  as  being  the  author  of  a  rabbinical 
theology  which  has  no  claim  upon  us;  and  that,  in 
spite  of  Christ's  own  declaration  that  there  were  many 
things  which  he  could  not  teach  while  he  was  here  in 
the  flesh,  but  which  he  would  teach,  by  his  Spirit,  after 
his  resurrection  and  ascension. 

Prof.  Kirsopp  Lake,  in  a  recent  address  before  the 


SCRIPTURE    AND    MISSIONS  189 

Harvard  Divinity  School,  deprecated  the  use  of  the 
term  "  theology."  "  Theology,"  he  said,  "  presup- 
poses divine  revelation,  which  we  do  not  accept."  He 
proposed  the  term  "  philosophy,"  as  expressive  of  the 
aim  of  the  Unitarian  school.  This  is  honest  and 
plain.  What  shall  we  say  of  those  who  speak  of  the 
"  new  emphasis  "  needed  in  modern  theology,  when 
they  really  mean  that  the  preaching  of  the  old  doc- 
trines of  sin  and  salvation  must  give  place  to  "  another 
gospel  "  of  cooperative  Christian  work  ?  From  their 
neglect*  to  put  any  further  emphasis  upon  "  the  faith 
once  for  all  delivered  to  the  saints,"  we  can  only  infer 
that,  for  their  structure  of  doctrine,  no  other  founda- 
tion than  philosophy  is  needed,  and  that  they,  like  the 
Unitarians,  no  longer  accept  the  fact  of  a  divine  revela- 
tion. "  Other  foundation  can  no  man  lay  than  that 
which  is  laid,  which  is  Jesus  Christ,"  and  to  lay  greater 
emphasis  upon  the  fruits  of  Christianity  than  upon  its 
roots,  is  to  insult  Christ,  and  ultimately  to  make  Chris- 
tianity itself  only  one  of  many  earth-born  religions, 
powerless  like  them  either  to  save  the  individual  soul 
or  to  redeem  society.  Professor  Lake  is  quite  right: 
If  there  is  no  divine  revelation,  there  can  be,  not  only 
no  systematic  theology,  but  no  theology  at  all. 

What  is  the  effect  of  this  method  upon  our  theo- 
logical seminaries?  It  is  to  deprive  the  gospel  mes- 
sage of  all  definiteness,  and  to  make  professors  and 
students  disseminators  of  doubts.  Many  a  professor 
has  found  teaching  preferable  to  preaching,  because 
he  lacked  the  initial  Christian  experience  which  gives 
to  preaching  its  certainty  and  power.  He  chooses  the 
line  of  least  resistance,  and  becomes  in  the  theological 


A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

seminary  a  blind  leader  of  the  blind.  Having  no  sys- 
tem of  truth  to  teach,  he  becomes  a  mere  lecturer  on 
the  history  of  doctrine.  Having  no  key  in  Christ  to 
the  unity  of  Scripture,  he  becomes  a  critic  of  what  he 
is  pleased  to  call  its  fragments,  that  is,  the  dissector 
of  a  cadaver.  Ask  him  if  he  believes  in  the  preexis- 
tence,  deity,  virgin  birth,  miracles,  atoning  death,  phys- 
ical resurrection,  omnipresence,  and  omnipotence  of 
Christ,  and  he  denies  your  right  to  require  of  him  any 
statement  of  his  own  beliefs.  He  does  not  conceive 
it  to  be  his  duty  to  furnish  his  students  with  any  fixed 
conclusions  as  to  doctrine  but  only  to  aid  them  in  com- 
ing to  conclusions  for  themselves.  The  apostle  Paul 
was  not  so  reticent.  He  was  not  ashamed  of  the  gospel 
of  Christ,  but  rather  gloried  in  it.  He  even  pro- 
nounced his  anathema  upon  any  who  taught  other  doc- 
trine. It  is  no  wonder  that  our  modern  critics  cry, 
"  Back  to  Christ,"  for  this  means,  "  Away  from  Paul." 
The  result  of  such  teaching  in  our  seminaries  is  that 
the  student,  unless  he  has  had  a  Pauline  experience 
before  he  came,  has  all  his  early  conceptions  of  Scrip- 
ture and  of  Christian  doctrine  weakened,  has  no  longer 
any  positive  message  to  deliver,  loses  the  ardor  of  his 
love  for  Christ,  and  at  his  graduation  leaves  the  semi- 
nary, not  to  become  preacher  or  pastor  as  he  had  once 
hoped,  but  to  sow  his  doubts  broadcast,  as  teacher  in 
some  college,  as  editor  of  some  religious  journal,  as 
secretary  of  some  Young  Men's  Christian  Association, 
or  as  agent  of  some  mutual  life  insurance  company. 
This  method  of  interpretation  switches  off  upon  some 
side-track  of  social  service  many  a  young  man  who 
otherwise  would  be  a  heroic  preacher  of  the  ever- 


SCRIPTURE    AXD    MISSIONS 

lasting  gospel.  The  theological  seminaries  of  almost 
all  our  denominations  are  becoming  so  infected  with 
this  grievous  error,  that  they  are  not  so  much  organs 
of  Christ,  as  they  are  organs  of  Antichrist.  This  ac- 
counts for  the  rise,  all  over  the  land,  of  Bible  schools, 
to  take  the  place  of  the  seminaries.  The  evil  is  coming 
in  like  a  flood,  and  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  will  surely 
raise  up  a  standard  against  it.  But  oh  the  pity!  that 
money  given  by  godly  men  to  provide  preachers  of  the 
gospel  should  be  devoted  to  undermining  the  Christian 
cause ! 

What  is  the  effect  of  this  method  of  interpretation 
upon  the  churches  of  our  denomination?  It  is  to  cut 
the  tap-root  of  their  strength,  and  to  imperil  their 
very  existence.  Baptist  churches  are  founded  upon 
Scripture.  Their  doctrine  of  regenerate  church-mem- 
bership, and  of  church  ordinances  as  belonging  only 
to  believers,  presupposes  an  authoritative  rule  of  faith 
and  practice  in  the  New  Testament.  In  controversy 
with  other  denominations  we  have  always  appealed 
"  to  the  law  and  to  the  testimony,"  and  we  have  de- 
clared that,  if  other  faiths  "  speak  not  according  to 
this  word,  surely  there  is  no  morning  for  them."  We 
have  held  that  the  authority  of  Scripture  is  not  an 
arbitrary  authority,  but  that  the  ordinances  have  so 
much  of  meaning  that  to  change  their  form  is  to  de- 
stroy them  altogether.  We  stand  for  immersion  as 
the  only  real  baptism,  not  because  much  water  is  better 
than  little  water,  but  because  baptism  is  the  symbol  of 
Christ's  death,  burial,  and  resurrection,  and  the  symbol 
also  of  our  spiritual  death,  burial,  and  resurrection 
with  him.  When  we  are  "  buried  with  him  in  bap- 


IQ2  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

tism,"  we  show  forth  his  death,  just  as  we  show  forth 
his  death  in  the  Lord's  Supper.  To  change  the  form 
of  the  Lord's  Supper  so  as  to  leave  out  all  reference 
to  the  breaking  of  Christ's  body  and  the  shedding  of 
his  blood,  would  be  to  break  down  one  great  visible 
monument  and  testimony  to  Christ's  atoning  death, 
and  to  destroy  the  Lord's  Supper  itself.  And  to 
change  the  form  of  baptism  so  as  to  leave  out  its  sym- 
bolism of  Christ's  death,  burial,  ai:d  resurrection,  is 
to  break  down  another  great  visible  monument  and 
testimony  to  Christ's  essential  work,  and  to  destroy 
the  ordinance  of  baptism.  Only  the  surrender  of  belief 
in  the  authority  of  Scripture,  and  a  consequent  ignor- 
ing of  the  meaning  of  baptism  can  explain  the  proposal 
to  give  us  our  requisition  of  immersion.  The  weak- 
ness of  our  denomination  in  such  cities  as  New  York 
results  from  the  acceptance  of  the  method  of  Scripture 
interpretation  which  I  have  been  criticizing.  We  are 
losing  our  faith  in  the  Bible,  and  our  determination 
to  stand  for  its  teachings.  We  are  introducing  into 
our  ministry  men  who  either  never  knew  the  Lord,  or 
who  have  lost  their  faith  in  him  and  their  love  for  him. 
The  unbelief  in  our  seminary  teaching  is  like  a  blinding 
mist  which  is  slowly  settling  down  upon  our  churches, 
and  is  gradually  abolishing,  not  only  all  definite  views 
of  Christian  doctrine,  but  also  all  conviction  of  duty 
to  "  contend  earnestly  for  the  faith  "  of  our  fathers. 
So  we  are  giving  up  our  polity,  to  please  and  to  join 
other  denominations.  If  this  were  only  a  lapse  in  de- 
nominationalism,  we  might  call  it  a  mere  change  in 
our  ways  of  expressing  faith. .  But  it  is  a  far  more 
radical  evil.  It  is  apostasy  from  Christ  and  revolt 


SCRIPTURE   AND    MISSIONS 

against  his  government.  It  is  refusal  to  rally  to  Christ's 
colors  in  the  great  conflict  with  error  and  sin.  We  are 
ceasing  to  be  evangelistic  as  well  as  evangelical,  and 
if  this  downward  progress  continues,  we  shall  in  due 
time  cease  to  exist.  This  is  the  fate  of  Unitarianism 
to-day.  We  Baptists  must  reform,  or  die. 

What  is  the  effect  of  this  method  of  interpretation 
upon  missions?  I  have  just  come  from  an  extensive 
tour  in  mission  fields.  I  have  visited  missionaries  of 
several  denominations.  I  have  found  those  missions 
most  successful  which  have  held  to  the  old  gospel  and 
to  the  polity  of  the  New  Testament.  But  I.  have  found 
a  growing  tendency  to  depend  upon  education,  rather 
than  upon  evangelism.  What  would  Peter  have  said 
on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  if  you  had  advised  him  not  to 
incur  the  wrath  of  the  Jews  by  his  preaching,  but  to 
establish  schools,  and  to  trust  to  the  gradual  en- 
lightenment of  the  Jewish  nation  by  means  of  litera- 
ture? He  might  have  replied  that  our  Lord  made  it 
his  first  duty  to  "  make  disciples,"  and  only  afterwards 
to  "  teach  them  to  observe  all  things  which  he  had 
commanded."  Christian  schools  and  Christian  teach- 
ing are  necessary  in  their  place,  but  they  are  second, 
not  first.  Our  lack  at  home  of  the  right  interpreta- 
tion of  Scripture,  and  our  fading  knowledge  in  ex- 
perience of  the  presence  and  power  of  Christ,  have 
gone  from  us  round  the  world.  Some  boards  are 
sending  out  as  missionaries  young  men  who  lack 
definite  views  of  doctrine.  These  young  men,  having 
nothing  positive  to  preach,  choose  rather  to  teach  in 
the  English  language,  in  schools  where  English  is 
spoken,  rather  than  preach  in  the  native  language 

N 


194  A    TOUR    OF   THE    MISSIONS 

which  requires  a  lifetime  of  study.  When  they  teach, 
they  cannot  help  revealing  their  mental  poverty,  and 
disturbing  the  simple  faith  of  their  pupils.  Having  no 
certainty  themselves,  they  can  inspire  no  certainty  in 
others,  for  "  if  the  trumpet  gives  no  certain  sound, 
who  will  arm  himself  for  the  battle?  "  These  unpre- 
pared and  inefficient  teachers  may  become  themselves 
converted  through  their  very  sense  of  weakness  in 
presence  of  the  towering  systems  of  idolatry  and 
superstition  around  them.  But  if  they  are  not  so  con- 
verted, they  will  handicap  the  mission  and  paralyze 
its  influence.  Some  of  our  best  missionaries  have  said 
to  me,  "  The  Lord  deliver  us  from  such  helpers !  "  No 
man  has  a  right  to  go,  and  no  board  has  a  right  to 
send,  as  a  missionary,  one  who  has  not  had  such 
a  personal  experience  of  Christ  as  will  enable  him  to 
stand  against  this  unscientific  and  unchristian  method 
of  Scripture  interpretation. 

This  so-called  "  historical  method  "  has  effects  on 
the  missionary  cause  at  home,  as  well  as  in  the  lands 
far  away.  "  How  shall  they  preach,  except  they  be 
sent?"  The  sending  of  missionaries  is  dependent 
upon  the  zeal  and  liberality  of  the  churches  in  our 
land.  But  how  can  one  who  is  not  sure  that  Jesus 
ever  uttered  the  words  of  the  Great  Commission  urge 
the  churches  to  fulfil  that  command  of  Christ?  How 
can  one  who  has  never  felt  his  own  need  of  an 
atonement  adjure  his  brethren,  by  Christ's  death  for 
their  sins,  not  to  let  the  heathen  perish?  How  can 
one  who  has  had  no  experience  of  Christ  as  a  present 
and  divine  Saviour,  have  power  to  stand  against  the 
rationalism  and  apathy  of  the  church?  This  method 


SCRIPTURE   AND   MISSIONS 

of  Scripture  interpretation  makes  evangelism  an  en- 
terprise of  fanatics  not  sufficiently  educated  to  know 
that  Buddha  and  Confucius  were  teachers  of  truth 
long  before  the  time  of  Christ.  Can  we  more  surely 
dry  up  the  sources  of  missionary  contributions,  than 
by  yielding  to  the  pernicious  influence  of  this  way 
of  treating  Scripture?  We  have  gone  far  already  in 
the  wrong  direction.  Our  churches  are  honeycombed 
with  doubt  and  with  indifference.  The  preaching  of 
the  old  gospel  of  sin  and  salvation  seems  almost  a 
thing  of  the  past.  People  have  itching  ears  that  will 
not  endure  sound  doctrine.  The  dynamic  of  missions 
is  love  for  Christ,  who  died  to  save  us  from 'the  guilt 
and  power  of  sin.  Modern  criticism  has  to  a  large 
extent  nullified  this  dynamic,  and  if  the  authority  of 
Scripture  is  yet  further  weakened,  we  may  look  for 
complete  collapse  in  our  supplies  both  of  men  and  of 
money.  In  fact,  the  faith  and  the  gifts  of  many 
converts  from  among  the  heathen  already  so  far  ex- 
ceed the  average  faith  and  gifts  of  our  churches  at 
home,  that  the  time  may  come  when  Burma  and  the 
Congo  may  have  to  send  missionaries  to  us,  as  we 
are  now  sending  missionaries  to  the  land  where  'the 
seven  churches  of  Asia  once  flourished. 

Whence  has  come  this  so-called  "  historical  method  " 
of  interpreting  Scripture?  I  answer:  It  was  "made 
in  Germany."  German  scholarship  for  a  century  past 
has  been  working  almost  exclusively  on  the  horizontal 
plane,  and  has  been  ignoring  the  light  that  comes  from 
above.  The  theology  of  Great  Britain  and  of  America 
has  been  profoundly  affected  by  the  application  of  its 
evolutionary  and  skeptical  principles.  In  Germany  it- 


196  A   TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

self  the  honesty  of  every  Scripture  writer  has  been 
questioned,  and  every  sacred  document  has  been 
torn  into  bits.  When  the  all-pervading  presence  and 
influence  of  Christ  in  the  Bible  is  lost  sight  of,  and 
its  separate  fragments  are  examined  to.  discover  their 
meaning,  there  is  no  guide  but  the  theory  of  evolution  ; 
and  evolution,  instead  of  being  the  ordinary  method  of 
a  personal  God,  is  itself  personified  and  made  the  only 
power  in  the  universe.  The  regularities  of  nature,  it 
is  thought,  leave  no  room  for  miracle.  There  is  no 
divine  Will  that  can  work  down  upon  nature  in  unique 
acts,  such  as  incarnation  and  resurrection.  A  panthe- 
istic Force  is  the  only  ruler,  and  whatever  is,  is  right. 
Goethe  led  the*  way  in  this  pagan  philosophy;  and  Ger- 
man universities  have  been  full  of  it  ever  since.  It  is 
painful  to-  see  how  German  theologians  and  ministers 
have  been  won  over  .to  the  ethics  of  brute  force  and 
the  practical,  deification  of  mere  might  in  human  affairs. 
The  New  Testament  has  been  interpreted  as  justifying 
implicit  obedience  to  "  the  powers  that  be,"  even  when 
they  turn  the  Kaiser  into  a  military  despot  and  his 
people  into  unresisting  and  deluded  slaves.  An  ex- 
aggerated nationalism  has  taken  the  place  of  human 
solidarity,  and  a  selfish  domination  of  the  world  has 
become  the  goal  of  national  ambition.  All  the  atroc- 
ities of  this  war  might  have  been  spared  us,  if  the 
nations  of  which  Germany  is  the  most  conspicuous 
offender  had  derived  their  ethics  and  their  practice 
from  the  divine  love  which  rules  above,  rather  than 
from  the  seeming  necessity  of  competing  with  the  na- 
tions around  them.  A  new  interpretation  of  Scrip- 
ture is  needed  to  set  the  world  right.  But  as  Ger- 


SCRIPTURE    AND    MISSIONS  1 97 

many  will  never  be  convinced  that  the  worship  of 
Force  is  vain,  until  she  sees  herself  plunged  in  defeat 
and  ruin,  so  the  advocates  of  this  so-called  historical 
method  will  never  make  deduction  a  primary  part  of 
their  procedure,  and  will  never  take  the  eternal  Christ 
as  their  key  to  Scripture  interpretation,  until  Christ 
himself  shall  by  a  second  spiritual  advent  enter  into 
their  hearts  and  dissipate  their  doubts,  as  he  did  when 
he  showed  himself  to  Paul  on  the  way  to  Damascus. 

I  have  tried  to  point  out  the  inherent  error  of  the 
method  to  which  I  have  been  objecting,  and  to  show 
its  ill  effects  upon  systematic  theology,  upon  our  theo- 
logical seminaries,  upon  our  Baptist  churches,  and 
upon  our  missionary  work  abroad  and  at  home.  I 
have  intimated  that  the  influence  of  this  perverse  treat- 
ment of  Holy  Writ  may  be  seen  even  in  the  present  in- 
ternecine conflict  in  which  the  professedly  Christian 
nations  are  engaged.  I  shall  very  naturally  be  asked 
what  remedy  I  propose  for  so  deep-seated  and  wide- 
spread an  evil.  I  can  only  answer  that  I  see  no  per- 
manent cure  but  the  second  coming  of  Christ.  But  do 
not  misunderstand  me.  I  am  no  premillennarian  of 
the  ordinary  sort.  Indeed,  I  am  as  much  a  post- 
millennialist,  as  I  am  a  premillennialist.  I  believe  that 
both  interpretations  of  prophecy  have  their  rights,  and, 
believing  also  as  I  do  that  Scripture  is  a  unity  and 
that  its  seeming  contradictions  can  be  harmonized,  I 
hold  that  Christ's  spiritual  coming  precedes  the  mil- 
lennium, but  that  his  visible  and  literal  coming  follows 
the  millennium.  I  therefore  look  for  such  a  spiritual 
coming  into  the  hearts  of  his  people,  as  shall  renew 
their  faith,  fulfil  their  joy,  and  answer  to  the  predic- 


198  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

tion  of  "  the  rapture  of  the  saints."  In  other  words, 
I  look  for  a  mighty  revival  of  religion,  which  will  set 
the  churches  on  their  old  foundation,  and  endow  them 
with  power  to  subdue  the  world.  This  war  seems  to 
me  God's  second  great  demonstration  of  man's  in- 
ability to  save  himself,  and  his  need  of  divine  power 
to  save  him.  As  the  ancient  world  and  its  history  were 
God's  demonstration  of  human  sin,  and  of  man's  need 
of  Christ's  first  advent,  so  this  war  is  God's  proof  that 
science  and  philosophy,  literature  and  commerce,  are 
not  sufficient  for  man's  needs,  and  that  Christ  must 
again  come,  if  our  modern  world  is  ever  to  be  saved. 
"  In  the  fulness  of  time  "  Christ's  first  advent  occurred. 
"  In  the  fulness  of  time  "  Christ's  second  advent  will 
occur.  But  not  until  humanity,  weary  of  its  load,  cries 
out  for  its  redemption.  "  How  long,  O  Lord,  how 
long?"  "It  is  not  for  us  to  know  the  times  which 
the  Father  has  set  within  his  own  authority."  But  it 
is  ours  to  believe  in  Christ's  promise,  and  to  pray  for 
its  speedy  fulfilment.  And  so,  I  beg  you  to  join  with 
me  in  the  one  prayer  with  which  our  book  of  Scripture 
closes,  namely,  "  Lord  Jesus,  come  quickly !  " 


XVII 
THE  THEOLOGY  OF  MISSIONS 


THE  THEOLOGY  OF  MISSIONS 


"THE  spirit  of  man  is  the  candle  of  the  Lord." 
Yes,  a  candle,  but  a  candle  not  yet  lighted,  a  candle 
which  will  never  be  light  nor  give  light,  till  it  is  touched 
by  a  divine  flame.  So  said  Doctor  Parkhurst.  Was 
his  interpretation  of  Scripture  correct  ?  He  drew  from 
the  proverb  the  conclusion  that  man  has  a  religious 
nature,  not  in  the  sense  that  he  is  actually  religious, 
but  only  in  the  sense  that  he  has  a  capacity  for  re- 
ligion. Doctor  Parkhurst  would  say  that  man  is  ac- 
tually religious  only  when  he  knows  the  true  God  and 
worships  him  in  spirit  and  in  truth.  To  that  God  he 
is  by  nature  and  by  sinful  habit  blind.  He  can  be  light 
and  give  light,  only  after  God  has  enlightened  him  by 
special  revelation.  His  nature  is  a  candle  unlighted, 
until  God  touches  it  w7ith  his  divine  flame. 

What  is  the  truth  in  this  matter?  The  monchs  I 
have  spent  in  these  heathen  lands  have  made  deep 
impression  upon  me,  and  the  problem  of  heathenism 
has  loomed  up  before  me  as  never  before.  When  one 
sees  thousands  prostrating  themselves  in  a  Moham- 
medan mosque  and  chanting  in  unison  their  ascription 
of  greatness  to  God,  or  when  one  sees  a  Hindu  de- 
votee so  absorbed  in  his  prayer  to  a  senseless  idol  that 
he  is  unconscious  of  the  kicks  and  shouts  of  the  passers- 
by,  one  comes  to  realize  that  man  must  have  a  god. 
The  religious  instinct  is  a  part  of  his  nature.  It  is 

201 


2O2  A   TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

more  than  a  mere  capacity  for  religion.  It  is  active 
as  well  as  passive.  In  some  sort  the  candle  is  already 
burning.  It  burns  at  certain  times  and  places  with  a 
fierce  and  demonic  glow.  When  I  saw  in  Calcutta,  so 
recently  the  capital  of  India,  a  priestess  of  the  temple  of 
Kali,  cutting  into  bits  the  flesh  and  entrails  of  sheep  in 
order  that  the  poorest  worshiper  might  have  for  his 
farthing  some  bloody  fragment  to  offer  at  the  shrine  of 
that  hideous  and  lustful  and  cruel  goddess,  I  felt  sure 
that,  though  the  candle  is  burning,  it  is  not  always  be- 
cause it  has  been  touched  by  a  divine  flame.  There  are 
other  powers  than  God's  at  work  in  this  universe.  Doc- 
tor Parkhurst's  explanation  of  the  Scripture  text  is  not 
sufficient.  He  acknowledges  only  a  part  of  the  truth. 
The  candle  is  giving  already  a  dim  and  lurid  light. 
Man  is  blindly  worshiping,  groping  in  the  dark,  bow- 
ing to  imaginary  deities,  the  products  of  his  own  imag- 
ination, the  work  of  his  own  hands. 

We  must  go  even  farther  than  this,  and  concede  that 
here  and  there  among  these  crowds  of  worshipers 
there  may  be  one  who  is  a  sincere  seeker  after  God 
and,  according  to  the  light  that  he  has,  is  trying 
honestly  to  serve  him.  I  do  not  mean  a  selfish  service 
of  ignorant  and  earthly  passion,  but  a  service  prompted 
by  some  elementary  knowledge  of  the  true  God,  gained 
by  contemplation  of  his  works  in  nature  or  from  the 
needs  of  his  own  soul  revealed  in  conscience.  Surely 
there  was  truth  and  sincerity  in  the  worship  of 
Socrates,  of  Epictetus,  of  Marcus  Aurelius.  The 
patriarchs  had  knowledge  of  God  and  walked  with 
God,  long  before  Christ  came.  And  Scripture  itself  de- 
clares that  in  every  nation  he  that  fears  God  and 


THE   THEOLOGY    OF    MISSIONS  2O3 

works  righteousness  is  accepted  by  him.  David 
Brainerd  found  among  the  American  Indians  a  man 
who  for  years  had  separated  himself  from  the  wicked- 
ness of  his  people,  and  had  devoted  himself  to  doing 
them  good.  Now  and  then  our  missionaries  find  a 
heathen  whose  strivings  after  God  have  been  prompted 
by  a  sense  of  sin,  and  whose  worship  must  have  been 
accepted  by  the  God  of  love.  Though  there  is  "  none 
other  name  given  among  men  whereby  we  may  be 
saved,"  we  cannot  doubt  that  every  man  who  feels 
himself  to  be  a  sinner,  and  casts  himself  upon  God's 
mercy  for  salvation,  does  really  though  unconsciously 
cast  himself  upon  Christ,  the  Lamb  of  God  who  takes 
away  the  sin  of  the  world,  and  so  joins  himself  to 
Christ  by  the  teaching  and  power  of  Christ's  Spirit, 
as  to  be  saved  in  some  measure  from  the  dominion  of 
sin  here  and  from  the  penalty  of  sin  hereafter. 

I  am  a  believer  in  the  unity,  the  sufficiency,  and  the 
authority  of  Scripture — in  its  unity,  when  the  parts  are 
put  together  in  their  historical  connections  and  with 
the  key  to  their  meaning  furnished  us  in  Christ;  in  its 
sufficiency,  as  a  rule  of  religious  faith  and  practice; 
and  in  its  authority,  when  rightly  interpreted  with  the 
aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  So  I  am  prepared  to  find  in  the 
first  chapter  of  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Romans  the  true 
philosophy  of  heathenism,  and  the  reconciliation  of 
the  otherwise  seemingly  conflicting  utterances  of  Scrip- 
ture with  regard  to  the  religious  nature  of  man.  I 
learn  that  God  made  man  upright,  and  endowed  him 
with  at  least  a  childlike  knowledge  of  himself.  But 
early  humanity  sought  out  many  inventions,  did  not 
wish  to  retain  God  in  its  knowledge,  and  substituted 


204  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

for  the  true  God  creatures  of  its  own  imagination. 
In  other  words,  the  scriptural  explanation  of  heathen- 
ism is  found  in  an  original  ancestral  sin,  in  which  the 
human  race  departed  from  the  true  God  and  gave  it- 
self up  to  the  worship,  first,  of  impersonal  nature- 
powers,  and  then,  of  the  polytheistic  personifications 
of  these  powers  which  naturally  followed. 

Modern  heathenism  is  the  result  of  an  abnormal  and 
downward  evolution.  Many  students  of  comparative 
religion  have  forgotten  that  evolution  is  oftener  to 
lower  forms  than  to  higher.  Many  a  species  in  the 
history  of  life  has  first  become  degenerate,  and  then 
has  become  extinct.  The  shores  of  time  are  strewn 
with  wrecks,  and  one  of  these  wrecks  is  human  nature. 
Paul  gives  us  only  the  logical  and  moral  interpreta- 
tion of  a  biological  fact,  when  he  declares  that  in  con- 
sequence of  man's  departure  from  God,  God  gave 
man  over  to  the  dominion  of  his  own  passions,  in 
order  that  the  shame  and  guilt  of  his  vile  affections 
might  awaken  his  conscience  and  lead  him  to  cry  for 
mercy  and  redemption.  Modern  heathenism,  still  sur- 
viving in  this  age  of  enlightenment,  shows  how  sin 
can  blind  the  intellect  and  harden  the  heart.  When 
men  worship  demons  of  cruelty  and  lust  instead  of 
God,  they  reveal  the  depravity  as  well  as  the  ignorance 
of  human  nature  in  its  downward  evolution.  The 
candle  has  been  lighted  indeed,  but  it  has  been  touched 
with  the  flames  of  hell. 

When  God  made  man  in  his  own  image,  it  was  only 
wheat  that  he  sowed  in  his  field.  The  evil  decision 
of  man  has  furnished  the  tares,  and  their  history  has 
been  a  history  of  downward  evolution.  But  side  by 


THE   THEOLOGY   OF    MISSIONS  265 

side  with  this  downward  evolution  there  has  been  an 
upward  evolution  of  divine  grace.  The  tares  have 
been  suffered  to  grow,  but  only  that  there  might  be 
demonstrated  the  power  of  the  wheat  to  root  them 
out.  And  from  the  very  beginning  Christ  has  been 
the  author  and  principle  of  the  true  evolution.  He 
who  created  the  race  has  been  its  Preserver,  Instructor, 
and  Saviour.  Humanity,  in  its  warring  and  its  lust, 
would  long  since  have  become  extinct,  if  it  had  not 
been  for  the  presence  in  it  of  a  divine  Life  and  Light. 
That  life  and  light  were  the  life  and  light  of  the 
preincarnate  Christ.  He  is  "  the  light  that  lighteth 
every  man,"  and  "  his  life  was  the  light  of  men." 
Jonathan  Edwards  did  not  go  too  far,  when  he  recog- 
nized in  all  natural  beauty  and  goodness  the  work  of 
Christ.  The  sunset  clouds  were  painted  by  the  hand 
of  Christ,  and  it  is  he  whose  glory  is  celebrated  by  the 
cannonading  of  the  autumn  storm  over  the  grave  of 
summer.  All  the  light  of  conscience  is  his  light; 
all  the  progress  of  science  is  his  revelation.  It  was 
he  who  led  the  children  of  Israel  by  a  pillar  of  cloud 
by  day  and  of  fire  by  night,  and  who  thundered  and 
lightened  from  Sinai  at  the  giving  of  the  Law.  "  The 
Rock  that  followed  "  the  chosen  people  through  the 
wilderness  and  gave  them  drink  "  was  Christ."  Every 
reform  within  the  bounds  of  heathenism  has  been  due 
to  him.  Confucius  and  Buddha,  so  far  as  they  uttered 
truth,  were  his  messengers.  He  has  never  left  human- 
ity without  a  witness  to  the  power  and  goodness  of 
God.  While  men  have  been  seeking  an  unknown  God, 
he  has  been  that  very  God  whom  they  were  seeking, 
and  it  is  he  who  has  incited  them  to  feel  after  him 


2O6  A   TOUR   OF    THE    MISSIONS 

and  find  him.  His  light  has  shined  in  the  darkness, 
and  the  darkness  has  comprehended  it  not,  though  in 
him  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being. 

So  there  is  evolution  of  good,  side  by  side  with 
the  evolution  of  evil.  We  may  recognize  truth  in 
heathen  systems,  while  we  deplore  their  errors,  for 
Christ  himself  is  the  Truth.  It  is  the  single  grain 
of  truth  in  these  systems  that  has  given  them  all  their 
power.  They  never  could  have  maintained  their  hold 
upon  the  world,  if  they  had  not  appealed  to  some 
good  instincts  of  the  human  heart.  A  coin  made 
wholly  of  lead  will  never  pass  for  a  dollar.  It  must 
have  a  little  washing  of  silver  to  give  it  any  sort  of 
currency.  But  it  is  a  counterfeit,  for  afl  its  silver 
washing.  So  these  heathen  systems  have  their  grain 
of  truth,  but  they  are  false  and  soul-destroying  all 
the  same.  Let  us  recognize  candidly  the  grains  of 
truth  which  they  contain,  for  these  are  witnesses  to  the 
indwelling  Christ  who  has  not  left  humanity  wholly 
to  itself.  And  let  us  make  these  grains  of  truth  our 
gateways  of  access  to  the  heathen  heart,  while  we 
show  the  heathen  the  larger  and  fuller  truth  as  it  is 
in  Jesus. 

Christ  -alone  can  solve  the  problems  of  the  world 
and  reconcile  the  warring  elements  of  humanity.  He 
is  our  peace,  who  hath  made  Jew  and  Gentile  one, 
having  broken  down  the  middle  wall  of  partition,  and 
having  made  of  the  twain  one  new  man,  reconciling 
both  to.  God  through  the  blood  of  his  Cross.  He  can 
make  all  sects,  all  parties,  all  castes,  all  nations  one; 
because  in  him  are  all  die  elements  of  truth  which 
each  possesses,  without  any  mixture  of  their  errors. 


THE   THEOLOGY   OF    MISSIONS  2O~ 

In  him  there  will  be  no  longer  barbarian,  Scythian, 
bond  nor  free,  male  nor  female,  for  he  will  bind  all 
together  by  virtue  of  their  union  with  himself.  The 
Hindu,  for  example,  has  the  truth  of  God's  im- 
manence, but  he  turns  it  into  falsehood  by  denying 
the  correlative  and  equally  important  truth  of  God's 
transcendence,  making  God  to  be  a  mere  nature-force 
without  personality,  while  Scripture  recognizes  in  God 
both  immanence  and  transcendence,  sees  God  in  all 
things  and  through  all  things,  yet  above  all  things. 
The  Hindu  has  also  the  truth  of  God's  incarnation, 
but  he  turns  it  into  error,  by  denying  the  permanence 
of  that  incarnation,  the  divine  incarnation  in  Krishna 
or  Buddha  being  only  a  temporary  assumption  of 
humanity  which  he  leaves  behind  him  when  he  re- 
ascends  to  his  heaven,  while  Christ  takes  our  human 
nature  into  perpetual  union  with  himself  and  makes  it 
sit  down  with  him  upon  his  throne.  The  Moslem, 
on  the  other  hand,  believes  in  God's  unity  and  tran- 
scendence, but  denies  his  immanence.  His  God  is  far 
away,  not  only  physically  but  also  morally,  for  he  is 
without  justice  or  love.  The  Moslem  holds  stoutly 
to  the  truth  of  God's  personality;  but  he  denies  the 
manifestation  of  that  personality  in  Christ,  and  also 
Christ's  personal  presence  with  all  believers.  Only 
Christ  can  break  down,  the  middle  wall  of  partition 
between  Hindu  and  Moslem,  for  he  alone  has  the  all- 
inclusive  truth  that  will  unite  them  both.  And  so 
of  all  divisions  of  caste,  of  color,  of  party,  of  denom- 
ination, and  of  nationality,  for  he  alone  is  the  Way, 
the  Truth,  and  the  Life,  supremely  and  absolutely 
fitted  to  be  the  Bringer  of  Peace  to  the  world. 


2O8  A   TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

There  is  yet  another  reason  why  Christ  alone  can 
save.  Let  us  remember  always  that  error  is  the  re- 
sult of  sin,  and  that  before  the  power  of  sin  can 
be  broken,  the  penalty  of  sin  must  be  removed.  In 
the  heart  of  man  is  an  inextinguishable  sense  of 
guilt,  and  an  equally  inextinguishable  thirst  for  repara- 
tion. It  is  the  forebodings  of  conscience  that  make 
death  terrible.  Blind  the  eyes  and  harden  the  heart, 
if  you  will.  The  accusations  of  conscience  will  be 
like  writings  in  invisible  ink,  that  come  out  clear  and 
threatening  in  times  of  introspection  and  of  sober 
judgment.  As  Shakespeare  says, 

Their  great  guilt 

Like  poison  given  to  work  a  great  time  after, 

Now  'gins  to  bite  the  spirits. 

The  greatest  chasm  is  between  their  souls  and  God, 
and  they  must  have  peace  with  God,  before  they  can 
have  peace  with  men.  Christ  is  our  peace,  therefore, 
first  of  all,  because  he  makes  atonement  for.  our  sins, 
pays  our  debts  to  justice,  and  sets  our  conscience  free 
from  guilt.  Christ  is  the  Lamb  of  God  who  takes 
away  the  sin  of  the  whole  world,  making  peace  by 
the  blood  of  his  Cross.  Having  made  our  peace  with 
God,  he  makes  peace  in  our  warring  powers  of  con- 
science and  will,  and  then  brings  about  peace  in  our 
relations  with  others.  As  he  made  man  at  the  first  of 
one  blood,  so  he  will  at  last  bring  all  the  nations  back 
into  one  brotherhood  of  holiness  and  love. 

There  is  a  moral  theology,  as  well  as  a  doctrinal 
theology.  The  moral  follows  the  doctrinal,  and  shows 
in  practice  that  the  doctrine  is  truth  and  not  error. 


THE    THEOLOGY   OF    MISSIONS  2(X) 

Paul  includes  this  moral  teaching  in  his  Epistle  to  the 
Romans.  At  the  beginning  of  his  twelfth  chapter 
he  passes  from  his  discussion  of  justification  by  faith 
to  speak  of  the  proper  effects  of  faith  in  the  Christian 
life :  "  I  beseech  you  therefore,  brethren,  by  the  mercies 
of  God,  that  ye  present  your  bodies  a  living  sacrifice." 
Then  comes  the  noblest  summary  of  duty  to  be  found 
in  all  literature.  All  manner  of  social  service  is  en- 
joined, while  the  presupposition  of  that  service  is  ever 
held  to  be  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  on  our  behalf  and  the 
regenerating  grace  of  God  in  the  Christian  heart. 
How  much  the  heathen  world  needs  this  part  of  the 
gospel,  only  some  knowledge  of  the  shameful  vices 
of  the  Orient  can  reveal  to  us.  The  first  chapter  of 
that  same  Epistle  is  a  correct  picture  of  the  heathen 
world  of  to-day.  A  pure  life,  which  is  also  a  life  lived 
for  others,  is  something  which  surpasses  the  power 
of  Confucius  or  Buddha  to  produce  or  to  maintain. 
Such  lives  in  the  churches  of  mission  lands  are  the 
weightiest  arguments  for  Christianity.  But  conver- 
sion to  Christ  goes,  in  its  influence,  farther  than  the 
individual.  It  has  a  far-reaching  social  influence.  It 
lifts  up  the  whole  family,  the  whole  class,  the  whole 
caste,  making  its  members  intelligent,  efficient,  trust- 
worthy, as  many  British  officials  in  India  gladly  bear 
witness.  Christianity  seems  likely  to  give  the  Sudras 
precedence  of  the  Brahmans  in  civil  and  political  af- 
fairs, so  that  in  one  case  at  least  the  meek  shall  in- 
herit the  earth. 

The  kingdom  of  God,  however,  can  never  win  its 
triumphs   solely   by   external   reforms.      In   order   to 
obtain   the   fruits   of  education,   morality,   and   self- 
o 


2IO  A   TOUR    OF   THE    MISSIONS 

• 

government,  you  must  first  have  Christian  faith  rooted 
in  the  soil.  Applications  of  Christianity  are  necessary, 
and  they  are  to  be  earnestly  sought,  but  it  will  be 
vain  to  seek  them,  if  we  have  no  Christianity  to  apply. 
The  tendency  in  our  missions  to.  put  the  main  stress 
upon  physical  and  social  agencies,  to  the  detriment  of 
simple  gospel  preaching,  is  sure  to  be  disappointing  in 
its  results.  It  is  like  trying  to  light  a  coal-fire  by  put- 
ting your  kindlings  on  top.  It  is  like  beginning  at  the 
roof,  and  building  down  to  the  foundation;  or  like 
first  purifying  the  stream,  and  afterwards  the  foun- 
tain. Society  is  made  up  of  individuals,  and  regenera- 
tion of  the  individual  must  precede  all  social  renova- 
tion. The  old  gospel,  with  regard  to  sin  and  salvation, 
is  the  only  gospel  that  will  save  the  heathen  world; 
and  the  living,  personal  Christ,  with  his  atoning 
blood  and  his  renewing  Spirit,  is  the  only  power 
that  can  bring  about  permanent  reformation  of  social 
evils  and  the  establishment  of  the  kingdom  of  God  in 
the  individual,  in  the  nation,  and  in  the  world. 

That  this  is  the  true  theology  of  missions,  the  his- 
tory of  missions  is  the  best  of  all  proofs.  We  need 
not  only  to  touch  the  intellect,  but  also  to  touch  the 
heart.  We  need  to  furnish  a  motive  that  will  win  to 
actioa  the  sluggish  and  selfish  devotees  of  systems  cen- 
tury-old that  have  enslaved  them.  One  message,  and 
one  only,  has  accomplished  this  result,  and  that  is  the 
message  of  the  Cross.  Not  the  presentation  of  God's 
greatness  and  power,  but  the  story  of  the  personal 
Jesus  and  his  giving  up  of  his  life  for  sinners,  has 
moved  men  to  give  themselves  to  him.  The  love  of 
Christ  has  called  forth  answering  love.  Greenlanders 


THE   THEOLOGY    OF    MISSIONS  211 

and  Bushmen,  Tibetans  and  Telugus,  Australians  and 
Chinese,  have  gone  to  their  deaths  for  Christ,  simply 
because  they  had  learned  that  Christ  died  for  them. 
Of  this  sort  have  been  the  first-fruits  of  all  our  mis- 
sions. Christ  crucified  has  been  the  power  of  God 
unto  salvation.  When  he  who  was  rich  became  poor 
that  we  might  become  rich,  he  instituted  not  only  an 
example,  but  a  motive,  sufficient  to  subdue  men's 
hearts  and  to  conquer  the  world.  "  To  win  for  the 
Lamb  that  was  slain  the  reward  of  his  sufferings  "  has 
turned  illiterate  men  in  India  into  indomitable  pro- 
pagandists of  Christianity;  but  it  has  also  made  mis- 
sionaries in  Oxford  and  Edinburgh,  in  Leicester  and 
Andover — missionaries  like  Reginald  Heber  and  John 
G.  Paton,  like  William  Carey  and  Adoniram  Judson. 
The  "  offense  of  the  Cross  "  is  great,  but  the  power  of 
the  Cross  is  greater  still,  and  the  theology  of  missions 
must  never  permit  mere  philosophy,  or  education,  or 
physical  betterment,  or  social  service,  to  take  the  place 
of  Christ  crucified  in  its  preaching. 

I  grieve  over  the  minimizing  of  Christ's  nature  and 
claims  that  is  current  in  our  day,  because  I  believe 
that  it  cuts  the  sinew  of  our  Christian  faith  and 
destroys  the  chief  dynamic  in  our  missions.  I  deplore 
the  denial  of  our  Lord's  deity  and  atonement,  the 
refusal  to  address  him  in  prayer,  the  ignoring  of  his 
promise  to  be  with  his  people  even  to  the  end  of  the 
world.  To  meet  our  needs  in  the  conflict  with  tower- 
ing systems  of  idolatry  and  superstition,  we  need  a 
supernatural.  Christ;  not  simply  the  man  of  Nazareth, 
but  the  Lord  of  glory;  not  the  Christ  of  the  Synop- 
tics alone,  but  also  the  Christ  of  John's  Gospel ;  not  a 


212  A   TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

merely  human  example  and  leader,  but  one  who  "  was 
declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God  with  power  by  the  resur- 
rection from  the  dead  " ;  not  simply  Jesus  according  to 
the  flesh,  but  "  the  Word  who  was  with  God  and  who 
was  God  "  in  eternity  past ;  not  simply  God  manifest 
in  human  life  nineteen  centuries  ago,  but  the  God  who 
is  "  the  same  yesterday,  and  to-day,  and  forever " ; 
not  simply  the  humbled,  but  also  the  glorified  Saviour, 
who  sits  now  upon  the  throne  of  the  universe,  all 
power  in  heaven  and  earth  being  given  into  his  hand. 
When  we  believe  in  an  ascended  Lord  at  God's  right 
hand,  the  God  of  Creation,  of  Providence,  and  of  Re- 
demption, we  have  a  faith  that  can  conquer  the  world. 
Without  such  a  faith  in  the  omnipresent,  omniscient, 
and  omnipotent  Christ,  we  are  weak  as  water  in  the 
conflict  with  heathenism.  We  may  set  up  Christ  on 
a  pedestal,  in  a  pantheon  like  that  of  Mrs.  Besant, 
with  a  statue  of  Krishna  by  his  side,  and  the  Hindu 
will  laugh  at  the  claims  of  the  gospel.  Only  faith  in 
Christ  as  very  God  can  meet  the  demands  of  the 
hour.  "  The  spirit  of  man  is  the  candle  of  the  Lord." 
In  every  age  Christ  has  lit  that  candle,  so  that  it  has 
given  some  light.  But  all  who  have  come  before  him, 
pretending  to  be  the  Light  of  the  world,  have  been 
thieves  and  robbers,  stealing  from  Christ  his  glory 
and  from  man  his  blessing.  Christ  alone  can  so  en- 
lighten us  that  we  can  be  light  and  can  give  light. 
Let  us  arise  and  shine,  because  our  Light  has  come, 
and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  has  arisen  upon  us ! 


XVIII 
MISSIONS  AND  MISSIONARIES 


MISSIONS  AND  MISSIONARIES 


Xo  result  of  my  travel  has  been  more  valuable  to 
me  than  the  new  impression  I  have  received  of  the 
effect  of  missions  upon  missionaries.  I  came  abroad 
with  a  lingering  idea  of  my  youth  that  missionaries 
were  a  class  by  themselves,  a  solemn  set,  destitute  of 
humor,  and  so  absorbed  in  their  work  as  to  be  narrow- 
minded.  On  the  contrary,  I  have  found  them  joyful 
and  even  hilarious,  broad  in  their  views  and  sym- 
pathies, lovers  of  the  good  in  literature  and  art.  The 
mental  and  spiritual  growth  of  students  who  left  me 
years  ago  for  a  foreign  field  has  greatly  surprised 
me.  Then  they  were  boys;  now  they  are  men.  The 
demands  of  the  missionary  work  have  drawn  out 
their  latent  powers ;  they  have  found  their  new  en- 
vironment immensely  stimulating;  contact  with  new 
lands  and  people  has  widened  their  outlook ;  they  have 
become  thinkers  and  leaders  of  men. 

It  takes  an  all-round  man  to  be  a  good  missionary. 
The  learning  of  a  foreign  language  in  which  one  has 
to  construct  his  own  grammar  and  lexicon  requires 
persistent  effort  of  the  most  disciplined  mind.  The 
missionary  is  often  called  upon  to  build  his  own  house 
or  church.  He  must  be  both  architect  and  supervisor, 
for  his  masons  know  no  English,  and  are  bent  on 
slighting  their  work.  He  has  servants  who  steal  and 
coolies  who  lie.  He  establishes,  manages,  and  governs 

215 


2l6  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

a  native  school,  and  generally  has  to  evolve  his  own 
pedagogy.  He  comes  into  relation  with  English  of- 
ficials, American  consuls,  and  native  functionaries, 
and  is  obliged  to  know  something  of  social  customs. 
In  fine,  he  is  a  jack  of  all  trades,  besides  being  a 
preacher  of  the  gospel  who  must  adapt  his  message  to 
the  understanding  of  the  illiterate  multitude  and  of 
the  cultivated  man  of  caste  as  well. 

All  this  gives  the  missionary  a  training  beyond  that 
of  any  university  course.  Herbert  Spencer  asserted 
that  a  nation  makes  progress  in  civilization  in  propor- 
tion to  the  variety  of  its  environment.  The  principle 
applies  also  to  the  development  of  the  individual. 
Our  missionaries  thought  perhaps  that  they  were  leav- 
ing culture  behind  them,  when  they  left  America  for 
barbarous  lands.  But  losing  their  lives  for  Christ's 
sake  they  found  to  be  mental  gain.  Even  on  the 
Congo  our  men  have  learned  more,  and  have  devel- 
oped stronger  characters,  than  would  have  been  pos- 
sible if  they  had  accepted  ordinary  pastorates  at  home. 
And  they  have  not  lost,  but  have  won,  that  fine  flavor 
of  sanity  and  judgment,  which  belongs  to  men  who 
have  had  large  experience  of  life. 

So  far,  I  have  referred  only  to  the  intellectual  side 
of  one's  education.  The  spiritual  equipment  is  even 
more  important.  In  heathendom  one  comes  in  contact 
with  towering  systems  of  idolatry  and  superstition, 
venerable  with  age  and  rooted  deeply  in  the  nature 
and  habit  of  the  people.  The  Christian  teacher  real- 
izes that,  in  his  conflict  with  these  systems,  he  is 
powerless,  unless  backed  by  Omnipotence.  He  is 
thrown  upon  the  divine  resources,  and  learns,  perhaps 


MISSIONS    AND    MISSIONARIES  217 

for  the  first  time,  that,  while  apart  from  Christ  he  can 
do  nothing,  with  Christ  he  can  do  all  things.  A  new 
experience  of  the  presence  and  power  of  the  Saviour 
comes  to  him.  The  struggle  that  at  first  taxed  all 
his  energy  is  at  last  a  glad  walk  over  the  course  in 
the  strength  of  Christ.  Anxiety  and  fear  have  taught 
him  lessons  which  he  could  not  otherwise  have  learned. 
He  has  become  a  hopeful  and  joyful  Christian. 

All  this  tends  to  render  the  missionary  doctrinally 
sound.  Evangelization  makes  men  evangelical.  When 
you  tell  the  gospel  to  a  heathen  sinner,  you  must  put 
it  in  the  simplest  terms,  or  he  will  fail  to  understand  it. 
Your  effort  to  reach  his  mind  and  heart  clarifies  your 
own.  To  one  condemned  and  lost,  no  mere  human 
example  in  Jesus  will  suffice;  you  need  an  atoning 
Saviour.  To  one  struggling  with  demonic  powers 
and  helpless  in  their  grasp,  no  mere  man  of  Nazareth, 
no  Jesus,  according  to  the  flesh,  will  answer ;  you  need 
the  Lord  of  Glory,  who  was  declared  to  be  the  Son  of 
God  with  power  by  the  resurrection  from  the  dead. 
The  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit  who  regenerates, 
sanctifies,  comforts,  and  saves,  becomes  an  indispen- 
sable element  in  preaching,  and  so  becomes  ingrained 
into  the  preacher's  confession  of  faith.  A  personal 
and  present  Christ,  Immanuel,  God  with  us,  is  the 
source  of  the  missionary's  power;  he  has  practical 
proof  that  the  Holy  Spirit  is  Christ  in  spiritual  form, 
with  his  people  alway,  even  to  the  end  of  the  world. 
The  reality  of  God  in  Christ,  manifest  in  nature,  rul- 
ing the  world  in  providence,  preparing  the  nations 
for  judgment,  sure  to  bring  the  world  to  his  feet,  be- 
comes an  article  of  the  missionary's  faith,  and  a  con- 


2l8  A    TOUR    OF    THE    MISSIONS 

stant  subject  of  his  teaching.  The  minimizing  of 
Christ's  nature  and  claims  has  no  proper  place  on  mis- 
sionary ground.  The  missionary  indeed  is  exerting 
an  influence  on  the  faith  of  the  homeland  equal  to 
that  which  he  exerts  upon  the  heathen  abroad. 

It  is  indeed  true  that  here  and  there  a  man  who 
has  come  out  as  a  missionary  has  been  attracted  and 
perverted  by  the  very  systems  he  proposed  to  subdue, 
and  'has  turned  out  a  teacher  of  Buddhism  instead  of 
Christianity.  But  such  men  had  never  the  root  of  the 
matter  in  them,  had  never  felt  the  galling  yoke  of 
sin,  had  never  known  the  joy  of  Christ's  salvation. 
They  had  /  gotten  their  preparation  for  evangelistic 
work  from  American  teachers  of  comparative  religion, 
who  put  Buddha  on  the  same  plane  with  Christ.  The 
result  has  only  shown  the  impotence  of  a  man-made 
gospel  to  combat  heathenism,  or  even  to  save  the  souls 
of  those  who  preach  that  sort  of  gospel.  In  a  sense 
precisely  opposite  to  that  of  the  apostle  Paul,  they 
have  come  to  be  opposers  of  the  faith  they  once  pro- 
posed to  advocate,  and  destroyers  instead  of  builders 
of  Christian  civilization.  All  this  is  a  lesson  to  our 
missionary  societies  and  churches  at  home.  The  col- 
leges and  seminaries  which  permit  indefinite  and  un- 
evangelical  doctrine  to  be  taught,  and  which  retain 
those  who  teach  it  upon  the  ground  that  liberality  in 
theology  is. a  duty,  merit  the  censure  of  God  and  man; 
for  the  school  or  the  church  that  ceases  to  be  evan- 
gelical will  soon  cease  to  be  evangelistic,  and  when 
it  ceases  to  be  evangelistic  it  will  soon  cease  to  exist. 
In  this  way  missions  are  the  testing-places  of  Chris- 
tian doctrine. 


MISSIONS    AND    MISSIONARIES 

In  a  similar  way  New  Testament  polity  is  showing  its 
power  in  our  foreign  work.  At  home  we  are  getting 
to  be  lax  in  our  reception  of  members,  and  are  taking 
in  numbers  of  persons  without  proper  evidence  of  their 
conversion.  Baptist  churches  which  used  to  examine 
carefully  their  candidates  for  admission  now  receive 
them  without  public  and  oral  confession  of  their  faith. 
Yet  these  new  members  may  vote,  and  may  determine 
the  attitude  of  the  church  in  important  exigencies.  All 
this  is  avoided  in  our  mission  churches.  They  per- 
ceive the  necessity  of  keeping  out  the  unfit,  as  clearly 
as  that  of  admitting  the  fit.  They  do  not  add  to  their 
membership  by  infant  baptism,  and  they  make  sure 
that  no  pecuniary  considerations  influence  professing 
converts.  Our  Baptist  mission  churches  are  fast  be- 
coming models  of  self-supporting,  self-governing,  and 
self-propagating  bodies.  Missionaries  find  that  their 
only  safety  lies  in  hewing  close  to  the  line  of  New 
Testament  requirement.  Their  success  in  building  up 
Baptist  churches  in  Burma  and  among  the  Telugus, 
keeps  our  missionaries  faithful  to  the  New  Testament 
model  of  church  polity.  They  have  the  joy  of  seeing 
churches  organized  on  scriptural  principles,  and  shed- 
ding their  light  upon  the  regions  of  darkness  around 
them. 

I  wish  to  say  something  also  about  the  physical  en- 
vironment of  our  missionaries  and  its  influence  upon 
them.  I  remember  that  half  a  century  ago  I  called 
upon  Doctor  Thompson  of  Beirut,  the  veteran  mis- 
sionary of  the  American  Board  in  Syria.  I  would 
not  have  been  surprised  if  I  had  found  him  living  in 
a  hut,  for  my  ideas  of  missionary  hardship  were  very 


22O  A   TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

crude.  But  I  was  surprised  to  find  him  living  in  a 
great  stone  mansion,  with  twice  as  many  servants  as 
we  ordinarily  have  at  home.  It  has  taken  me  some 
time  to  learn  that  in  a  hot  country  a  cool  and  spacious 
house  is  a  primary  necessity  of  life,  if  the  missionary 
expects  to  endure  a  climate  where  the  thermometer  at 
times  goes  up  beyond  a  hundred  degrees  and  stays 
there.  And  ordinary  comfort  cannot  be  obtained  with- 
out servants  to  do  your  cooking  and  running.  The 
large  house  can  be  built  for  half  the  cost  of  such  a 
structure  at  home,  and  the  servants  can  be  obtained 
for  only  a  few  cents  a  day  for  each  one.  Remember 
that  in  many  cases  the  missionary  has  not  only  to  be 
his  own  physician  and  surgeon,  but  also  the  physician 
and  surgeon  of  others;  that  his  house  is  often  a 
hospital  as  well  as  a  gathering-place  of  inquirers. 
Remember,  too,  that  the  missionary's  wife  has  not  only 
to  perform  the  household  duties  of  a  wife  at  home,  but 
in  addition  has  probably  to  be  the  supervisor  of  a  girls' 
school  and  the  only  school-teacher  and  music-teacher 
that  her  children  will  know  until  they  are  old  enough 
to  go  to  the  homeland.  Remember  these  considera- 
tions, and  you  will  see  that  a  decent  home  is  essential 
to  a  missionary's  success  in  a  heathen  land.  Our  mis- 
sionary work,  like  our  diplomatic  service,  has  been 
too  long  discredited  by  our  insufficient  care  for  our 
representatives  abroad. 

Our  friends  of  other  denominations  are  greatly 
ahead  of  us  in  this  matter  of  provision  for  their  mis- 
sionaries. Not  only  are  the  bungalows  built  for  their 
residences  better  than  ours,  but  their  plants  of  church 
and  school  buildings  show  a  larger  outlook  for  the 


MISSIONS   AND   MISSIONARIES  221 

future  than  ours  show.  The  English  Baptists,  the 
Congregationalists,  the  Methodists,  the  Church  of  En- 
gland, yes,  even  the  Theosophists  and  Buddhists,  fur- 
nish object-lessons  to  us  in  this  regard.  And  yet,  such 
has  been  the  inventiveness  and  large-mindedness  of  our 
missionaries  themselves,  that  in  all  the  great  centers 
of  our  work,  they  are  housed  better  than  the  average 
pastors  of  our  churches  at  home.  I  wish  we  could 
double  their  strength  by  the  establishment  of  summer 
rest-houses  in  the  hills,  and  by  presenting  every  one  of 
them  with  a  motor-car.  But  even  now,  the  days  of 
extreme  hardship  are  past,  and  no  man  of  ordinary 
vigor  need  fear  coming  to  the  foreign  field  on  account 
of  its  physical  discomforts. 

When  our  Lord  sent  out  his  first  missionaries,  he 
sent  them  two  by  two.  The  real  trial  of  the  mission- 
ary is  more  mental  than  physical.  He  greatly  needs 
companionship.  Silence  in  the  midst  of  the  beating 
of  heathen  tom-toms  becomes  enervating  and  appall- 
ing; it  may  make  a  man  insane.  We  are  learning  the 
value  of  team-work  in  missions.  What  one  man  alone 
could  never  accomplish,  he  can  do  with  the  help  of 
others.  The  American  Board  in  its  mission  at 
Madura,  India,  has  acted  upon  this  principle,  and  the 
result  is  seen  in  an  aggregate  of  twenty-two  thousand 
church-members.  Our  own  most  successful  work  has 
been  among  the  Burmans  and  Karens,  where  we  have 
seventy  thousand  members,  and  among  the  Telugus, 
where  we  have  as  many  more.  In  these  fields  there 
are  enough  workers  to  constitute  a  homogeneous  so- 
ciety, with  frequent  conferences  to  help  the  discour- 
aged and  to  stimulate  the  weak.  Let  us  be  generous 


222  A   TOUR   OF   THE    MISSIONS 

in  providing  additional  helpers  and  furloughs  to  men 
so  far  removed  from  our  Christian  civilization. 

But  let  no  one  go  to  the  foreign  field  expecting  to 
get  all  his  strength  from  his  brethren.  Missionary 
work  is  no  sinecure.  It  requires  not  only  a  sound 
body  and  a  sound  mind,  with  a  cheerful  and  hopeful 
temperament,  but  also  a  willingness  to  endure  hard- 
ship for  Jesus'  sake,  and,  if  need  be,  with  him  alone 
for  helper.  There  are  more  alleviations  of  mission- 
ary conditions  than  were  known  in  its  early  days, 
but  they  still  require  self-sacrifice.  Separation  from 
home  and  friends,  and,  for  the  pioneer,  days  of  un- 
speakable loneliness,  are  the  missionary's  portion.  The 
necessity  of  sending  children  to  America,  so  that  they 
may  escape  disease  and  immorality  among  the  heathen, 
is  an  agony  which  only  the  affectionate  parent  can 
know.  Opportunities  for  usefulness  which  cannot  be 
seized,  because  of  lack  of  reenforcement  from  the 
homeland,  involve  a  "  hope  deferred  that  maketh  the 
heart  sick." 

When  Paul  went  to  Athens  he  probably  hoped  to 
win  the  philosophers  to  Christ's  standard.  But  the 
Stoics  and  Epicureans  scoffed  at  him.  He  had  to  con- 
tent himself  with  the  multitude  of  commoner  converts 
at  Corinth.  It  was  doubtless  God's  sovereignty  that 
determined  the  result,  but  God's  sovereignty  is  also 
wisdom.  It  took  Paul  a  long  time  to  learn  that  God 
builds  his  fires  from  the  bottom,  and  ordinarily  kindles 
the  small  sticks  first.  "  Not  many  wise,  not  many 
noble  hath  God  chosen,"  but  the  weak  things  first, 
"  that  no  flesh  may  glory  in  his  presence."  Here  is 
one  of  the  trials  of  missionary  life,  and  one  of  the 


MISSIONS    AND    MISSIONARIES  223 

tests  of  missionary  faith.  Can  the  missionary  welcome 
the  conversion  of  a  multitude  of  low-class  people,  like 
the  Madigas,  when  their  acceptance  becomes  to  the 
proud  Brahman  an  evidence  of  the  ignoble  character 
of  Christianity?  Yes,  he  can,  if  he  has  faith  in  God. 
He  can  wait  on  God,  and  wait  for  results. 

He  builded  better  than  he  knew, 
The  conscious  stone  to  beauty  grew. 

The  great  Sudra  class,  a  class  higher  than  the  Madi- 
gas, under  the  influence  of  Christianity,  is  becoming 
more  intelligent  and  more  influential  than  the  Brah- 
man, and  is  gradually  taking  from  him  his  social 
prestige  and  his  political  power.  Many  missionaries 
are  expecting  a  great  turning  unto  the  Lord  from 
among  the  Sudras.  Meantime  there  is  a  promise  "  to 
him  that  overcometh."  "  If  we  suffer  with  him,  we 
shall  also  reign  with  him."  "  Our  light  affliction,  which 
is  but  for  a  moment,  worketh  for  us  a  far  more  ex- 
ceeding and  eternal  weight  of  glory."  And 

When  we  reach  the  shore  at  last, 
Who  shall  count  the  billows  past? 


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